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²³ Jeremiah received this message from the Lord: ²⁴ “Jeremiah, have you heard what the people are saying? They are saying, ‘The Lord turned away from the two families of Israel and Judah. He chose those people, but now he does not even accept them as a nation.’”

²⁵ The Lord says, “If my agreement with day and night does not continue, and if I had not made the laws for the sky and earth, maybe I would leave those people. ²⁶ Then maybe I would turn away from Jacob’s descendants. And then maybe I would not let David’s descendants rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But David is my servant, and I will be kind to those people. I will again cause good things to happen to them.”

A Warning to Zedekiah

34 The message from the Lord came to Jeremiah. The message came at the time when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and all the towns around it. Nebuchadnezzar had with him all his army and the armies of all the kingdoms and peoples in the empire he ruled.

² This was the message: “This is what the Lord, the God of the people of Israel, says: Jeremiah, go to King Zedekiah of Judah and give him this message: ‘Zedekiah, this is what the Lord says: I will give the city of Jerusalem to the king of Babylon very soon, and he will burn it down. ³ Zedekiah, you will not escape from the king of Babylon. You will surely be caught and given to him. You will see the king of Babylon with your own eyes. He will talk to you face to face, and you will go to Babylon. ⁴ But listen to the promise of the Lord, King Zedekiah of Judah. This is what the Lord says about you: You will not be killed with a sword. ⁵ You will die in a peaceful way. People made funeral fires to honor your ancestors, the kings who ruled before you became king. In the same way people will make a funeral fire to honor you. They will cry for you and sadly say, “Oh, my master!” I myself make this promise to you.’” This message is from the Lord.

⁶ So Jeremiah told all this message to Zedekiah in Jerusalem. ⁷ This was while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem. The army of Babylon was also fighting against the cities of Judah that had not been captured. These cities were Lachish and Azekah. These were the only fortified cities left in the land of Judah.

The People Break an Agreement

⁸ King Zedekiah had made an agreement with all the people in Jerusalem to give freedom to all the Hebrew slaves. A message from the Lord came to Jeremiah after Zedekiah had made that agreement. ⁹ Everyone was supposed to free their Hebrew slaves. All male and female Hebrew slaves were to be set free. No one was supposed to keep another person from the tribe of Judah in slavery. ¹⁰ So all the leaders of Judah and all the people accepted this agreement. They would free their male and female slaves so that they would no longer serve them. Everyone agreed, and so all the slaves were set free. ¹¹ But after that,^[a] the people who had slaves changed their minds. So they took the people they had set free and made them slaves again.

¹² Then this message from the Lord came to Jeremiah: ¹³ “This is what the Lord, the God of the people of Israel, says: ‘I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, where they were slaves. When I did that, I made an agreement with them. ¹⁴ I said to your ancestors, “At the end of every seven years, everyone must set their Hebrew slaves free. If you have fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you, you must let them go free after they have served you for six years.” But your ancestors did not listen to me or pay attention to me. ¹⁵ A short time ago you changed your hearts to do what is right. Everyone set free their fellow Hebrews who were slaves. And you even made an agreement before me in the Temple that is called by my name. ¹⁶ But now you have changed your minds. You have shown that you do not honor my name because each of you has taken back the male and female slaves that you had set free. You have forced them to become slaves again.’

¹⁷ “So this is what the Lord says: ‘You people have not obeyed me. You have not given freedom to your fellow Hebrews. So, because you have not given them freedom, I will give a special kind of freedom—freedom to die in war or by disease or by hunger! This message is from the Lord. When the other nations see what I have done to you, they will all be shocked. ¹⁸ I will hand over those who broke my agreement and have not kept the promises they made before me. They cut a calf into two pieces before me and walked between the two pieces.^{[b] 19} These are the people who walked between the two pieces of the calf when they made the agreement before me: the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the important officials of the court, the priests, and the people of the land. ²⁰ So I will give them to their enemies and to everyone who wants to kill them. Their bodies will become food for the birds of the air and for the wild animals of the earth. ²¹ I will give King Zedekiah of Judah and his leaders to their enemies and to everyone who wants to kill them. I will give Zedekiah and his people to the army of the king of Babylon, even though that army has left Jerusalem.^{[c] 22} But I will give the order,’ says the Lord, ‘to bring the Babylonian army back to Jerusalem. That army will fight against Jerusalem. They will capture it, set it on fire, and burn it down. And I will destroy the towns in the land of Judah. They will become empty deserts. No one will live there.’”

The Recabite Family’s Good Example

35 During the time when Jehoiakim, son of King Josiah, was king of Judah, the Lord spoke this message to Jeremiah: ² “Go to the Recabite family^[d] and invite them to come to one of the side rooms of the Lord’s Temple. Offer them wine to drink.”

³ So I went to get Jaazaniah^[e] son of Jeremiah,^[f] who was the son of Habazziniah. And I got all of Jaazaniah’s brothers and sons and the whole family of the Recabites together. ⁴ Then I brought them into the Temple of the Lord. We went into the room of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah. Hanan was a man of God.^[g] The room was next to the room where the princes of Judah stay. It was over the room of Maaseiah son of Shallum. Maaseiah was the doorkeeper in the Temple. ⁵ Then I put some bowls full of wine and some cups in front of the Recabite family. And I said to them, “Drink some wine.”

⁶ But the Recabite family answered, “We never drink wine. We never drink it because our ancestor Jonadab son of Recab gave us this command: ‘You and your descendants must never drink wine. ⁷ Also you must never build houses, plant seeds, or plant vineyards. You must never do any of those things. You must live only in tents. If you do that, you will live a long time in the land where you move from place to place.’ ⁸ So we have obeyed everything our ancestor Jonadab commanded us. None of us ever drinks wine, and neither do our wives, sons, or daughters. ⁹ We never build houses to live in, we never own vineyards or fields, and we never plant crops. ¹⁰ We have lived in tents and have obeyed everything our ancestor Jonadab commanded us. ¹¹ But when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked the country of Judah, we did go into Jerusalem. We said to each other, ‘Come, we must enter the city of Jerusalem so that we can escape the Babylonian army and the Aramean army.’ So we have stayed in Jerusalem.”

¹² Then this message from the Lord came to Jeremiah: ¹³ “The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says to go to the people of Judah and Jerusalem and tell them this message: ‘You should learn a lesson and obey my message.’ This message is from the Lord. ¹⁴ ‘Jonadab son of Recab ordered his sons not to drink wine, and that command has been obeyed. To this day the descendants of Jonadab have obeyed their ancestor’s command. They do not drink wine. But I have given commands to you people of Judah again and again, and you have not obeyed me. ¹⁵ Time after time I have sent my servants the prophets to you. They said, “You must each stop doing evil things and do what is right. Don’t follow other gods. Don’t worship or serve them. If you obey me, you will live in the land I have given to you and your ancestors.” But you have not paid attention to my message. ¹⁶ The descendants of Jonadab obeyed the commands that their ancestor gave them, but the people of Judah have not obeyed me.’

¹⁷ “So this is what the Lord God All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: ‘I said that many bad things would happen to Judah and Jerusalem. I will soon make all those bad things happen. I spoke to the people, but they refused to listen. I called out to them, but they didn’t answer me.’”

¹⁸ Then Jeremiah said to the Recabite family, “This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: ‘You have obeyed the commands of your ancestor Jonadab. You have followed all of his teachings. You have done everything he commanded.’ ¹⁹ So the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: ‘There will always be a descendant of Jonadab son of Recab to serve me.’”

King Jehoiakim Burns Jeremiah’s Scroll

36 The message from the Lord came to Jeremiah. This was during the fourth year that Jehoiakim^[h] son of Josiah was king of Judah. This was the message from the Lord: ² “Jeremiah, get a scroll and write on it all the messages I have spoken to you. I have spoken to you about the nations of Israel and Judah and all the other nations. Write all the words that I have spoken to you from the time that Josiah was king, until now. ³ Maybe the people of Judah will hear what I am planning to do to them and will stop doing bad things. If they will do that, I will forgive them for the terrible sins they have committed.”

⁴ So Jeremiah called a man named Baruch son of Neriah. Jeremiah spoke the messages the Lord had given him. While he spoke, Baruch wrote the messages on the scroll. ⁵ Then Jeremiah said to Baruch, “I cannot go to the Lord’s Temple. I am not allowed to go there. ⁶ So I want you to go to the Temple of the Lord. Go there on a day of fasting and read to the people from the scroll. Read to the people the messages from the Lord that you wrote on the scroll as I spoke them to you. Read them to all the people of Judah who come into Jerusalem from the towns where they live. ⁷ Perhaps they will ask the Lord to help them. Perhaps each person will stop doing bad things. The Lord has announced that he is very angry with them.” ⁸ So Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do. Baruch read aloud the scroll that had the Lord’s messages written on it. He read it in the Lord’s Temple.

⁹ In the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim was king, a fast was announced. All those who lived in the city of Jerusalem and everyone who had come into Jerusalem from the towns of Judah were supposed to fast before the Lord. ¹⁰ At that time Baruch read the scroll that contained Jeremiah’s words. He read the scroll in the Temple of the Lord to all the people who were there. Baruch was in the room of Gemariah in the upper courtyard when he read from the scroll. That room was located at the entrance of the New Gate of the Temple. Gemariah was the son of Shaphan. Gemariah was a scribe in the Temple.

¹¹ A man named Micaiah heard all the messages from the Lord that Baruch read from the scroll. Micaiah was the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan. ¹² When Micaiah heard the messages from the scroll, he went down to the secretary’s room in the king’s palace. All the royal officials were sitting there in the king’s palace. These are the names of the officials: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Acbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah; all the other royal officials were there too. ¹³ Micaiah told them everything he had heard Baruch read from the scroll.

¹⁴ Then all the officials sent a man named Jehudi to Baruch. (Jehudi was the son of Nethaniah, son of Shelemiah. Shelemiah was the son of Cushi.) Jehudi said to Baruch, “Bring the scroll that you read from and come with me.”

Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll and went with Jehudi to the officials.

¹⁵ Then the officials said to Baruch, “Sit down and read the scroll to us.”

So Baruch read the scroll to them.

¹⁶ When the royal officials heard all the messages from the scroll, they were afraid and looked at one another. They said to Baruch, “We must tell King Jehoiakim about these messages on the scroll.” ¹⁷ Then the officials asked Baruch, “Tell us, Baruch, where did you get these messages that you wrote on the scroll? Did you write down what Jeremiah said to you?”

¹⁸ “Yes,” Baruch answered. “Jeremiah spoke, and I wrote down all the messages with ink on this scroll.”

¹⁹ Then the royal officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah must go and hide. Don’t tell anyone where you are hiding.”

²⁰ Then the royal officials put the scroll in the room of Elishama the scribe. They went to King Jehoiakim and told him all about the scroll.

²¹ So King Jehoiakim sent Jehudi to get the scroll. Jehudi brought the scroll from the room of Elishama the scribe. Then Jehudi read the scroll to the king and all the servants who stood around the king. ²² The time this happened was in the ninth month,^[i] so King Jehoiakim was sitting in the part of the palace used for winter. There was a fire burning in a small fireplace in front of the king. ²³ Jehudi began to read from the scroll. But after he would read two or three columns, King Jehoiakim would grab the scroll. Then he would cut those columns off the scroll with a small knife and throw them into the fireplace. Finally, the whole scroll was burned in the fire. ²⁴ And, when King Jehoiakim and his servants heard the message from the scroll, they were not afraid. They did not tear their clothes to show sorrow for doing wrong.

²⁵ Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah tried to talk King Jehoiakim out of burning the scroll, but he would not listen to them. ²⁶ Instead King Jehoiakim commanded some men to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. These men were Jerahmeel, a son of the king, Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel. But they could not find Baruch and Jeremiah, because the Lord had hidden them.

²⁷ King Jehoiakim burned the scroll on which Baruch had written all the words that Jeremiah had spoken to him. Then this message from the Lord came to Jeremiah:

²⁸ “Get another scroll. Write all the messages on it that were on the first scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah burned. ²⁹ Also tell King Jehoiakim of Judah that this is what the Lord says: ‘Jehoiakim, you burned that scroll. You said, “Why did Jeremiah write that the king of Babylon will surely come and destroy this land and kill all the people and animals in it?” ³⁰ So this is what the Lord says about King Jehoiakim of Judah: Jehoiakim’s descendants will not sit on David’s throne. When Jehoiakim dies, he will not get a king’s funeral, but his body will be thrown out on the ground. His body will be left out in the heat of the day and the cold frost of the night. ³¹ I will punish Jehoiakim and his children, and I will punish his officials. I will do this because they are wicked. I will bring terrible disasters on them and on all those who live in Jerusalem and on the people from Judah. I will bring all these bad things on them, just as I warned them, because they have not listened to me.’”

³² Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch son of Neriah, the scribe. As Jeremiah spoke, Baruch wrote on the scroll the same messages that were on the scroll that King Jehoiakim had burned in the fire. And many other words like those messages were added to the second scroll.

Jeremiah Is Put Into Prison

37 Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon. He appointed Zedekiah son of Josiah to be the king of Judah in the place of Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim. ² But Zedekiah, his servants, and the people of Judah did not pay attention to the messages the Lord had given to Jeremiah the prophet.

³ King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to Jeremiah the prophet with a message. This was the message they brought to Jeremiah: “Jeremiah, pray to the Lord our God for us.”

⁴ At that time Jeremiah had not yet been put into prison, so he was free to go anywhere he wanted. ⁵ Also at that time Pharaoh’s army had marched from Egypt toward Judah. The Babylonian army had surrounded the city of Jerusalem in order to defeat it. Then they had heard about the army from Egypt marching toward them. So the army from Babylon left Jerusalem to fight with the army from Egypt.

⁶ This message from the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet: ⁷ “This is what the Lord, the God of the people of Israel, says: ‘Jehucal and Zephaniah, I know that King Zedekiah of Judah sent you to me to ask questions. Tell King Zedekiah this: Pharaoh’s army marched out of Egypt to come here to help you against the army of Babylon. But Pharaoh’s army will go back to Egypt. ⁸ After that the army from Babylon will come back here and attack Jerusalem. Then they will capture and burn it.’ ⁹ This is what the Lord says: ‘People of Jerusalem, don’t fool yourselves. Don’t say to yourselves, “The army of Babylon will surely leave us alone.” They will not. ¹⁰ People of Jerusalem, even if you could defeat all the Babylonian army that is attacking you, there would still be a few wounded men left in their tents. Even those few wounded men would come out of their tents and burn Jerusalem down.’”

¹¹ When the Babylonian army left Jerusalem to fight the army of the Pharaoh of Egypt, ¹² Jeremiah wanted to travel from Jerusalem to the land of Benjamin.^[j] He wanted to be there for a division of some property that belonged to his family. ¹³ But when Jeremiah got to the Benjamin Gate of Jerusalem,^[k] the captain in charge of the guards arrested him. The captain’s name was Irijah son of Shelemiah. Shelemiah was the son of Hananiah. So Irijah the captain arrested Jeremiah and said, “Jeremiah, you are leaving us to join the Babylonian side.”

¹⁴ Jeremiah said to Irijah, “That is not true! I am not leaving to join the Babylonians.” But Irijah refused to listen to Jeremiah. And Irijah arrested Jeremiah and took him to the royal officials of Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Those officials were very angry with Jeremiah. They gave an order for Jeremiah to be beaten. Then they put him in a prison. The prison was in the house of Jonathan, a scribe for the king of Judah. His house had been made into a prison. ¹⁶ They put Jeremiah into a cell under the house of Jonathan. The cell was in a dungeon under the ground. Jeremiah was there for a long time.

¹⁷ Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah and had him brought to the palace. Zedekiah talked to Jeremiah in private. He asked Jeremiah, “Is there any message from the Lord?”

Jeremiah answered, “Yes, he said that you will be given to the king of Babylon.” ¹⁸ Then Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “What have I done wrong? What crime have I done against you or your officials or the people of Jerusalem? Why have you thrown me into prison? ¹⁹ King Zedekiah, where are your prophets now? They told you a false message. They said, ‘The king of Babylon will not attack you or this land of Judah.’ ²⁰ But now, my lord, king of Judah, please listen to me. Please let me bring my request to you. This is what I ask: Don’t send me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe. If you send me back, I will die there.”

²¹ So King Zedekiah gave orders for Jeremiah to be put under guard in the courtyard. And he ordered that Jeremiah should be given bread from the street bakers. He was given bread until there was no more bread in the city. So Jeremiah stayed under guard in the courtyard.

Jeremiah Is Thrown Into a Cistern

38 Some of the royal officials heard what Jeremiah was saying. They were Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah. Jeremiah was telling all the people this message: ² “This is what the Lord says: ‘Everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die from war, hunger, or disease. But everyone who surrenders to the army of Babylon will live and escape with their lives.’ ³ And this is what the Lord says: ‘This city of Jerusalem will surely be given to the army of the king of Babylon. He will capture this city.’”

⁴ Then the royal officials who heard what Jeremiah was telling the people went to King Zedekiah. They said to the king, “Jeremiah should be put to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are still in the city and everyone else by what he is saying. He is not looking for peace; he is just trying to cause trouble.”

⁵ So King Zedekiah said to the officials, “Jeremiah is in your control. I cannot do anything to stop you.”

⁶ So the officials took Jeremiah and put him into Malkijah’s cistern. Malkijah was the king’s son. The cistern was in the Temple yard where the king’s guard stayed. They used ropes to lower Jeremiah into the cistern. The cistern didn’t have any water in it, only mud. And Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

⁷ But a man named Ebed Melech heard that the officials had put Jeremiah into the cistern. Ebed Melech was from Ethiopia, and he was a eunuch in the king’s palace. King Zedekiah was sitting at the Benjamin Gate, so Ebed Melech left the king’s palace and went to talk to the king at the gate. ^8-9 Ebed Melech said, “My lord and king, these officials have done evil. They have treated Jeremiah the prophet badly. They have thrown him into a cistern and left him there to die.”^[l]

¹⁰ Then King Zedekiah gave a command to Ebed Melech, the Ethiopian. This was the command: “Ebed Melech, take three^[m] men from the palace with you, and go get Jeremiah out of the cistern before he dies.”

¹¹ So Ebed Melech took the men with him. But first he went to a room under the storeroom in the king’s palace. He took some old rags and worn-out clothes from that room. Then he let the rags down with some ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern. ¹² Ebed Melech, the Ethiopian, said to Jeremiah, “Put these old rags and worn-out clothes under your arms. When we pull you out, these rags will pad your underarms. Then the ropes will not hurt you.” So Jeremiah did as Ebed Melech said. ¹³ The men pulled Jeremiah up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah stayed under guard in the Temple yard.

Zedekiah Asks Jeremiah Some Questions

¹⁴ Then King Zedekiah sent someone to get Jeremiah the prophet. He had Jeremiah brought to the third entrance to the Temple of the Lord. Then the king said, “Jeremiah, I am going to ask you something. Don’t hide anything from me, but tell me everything honestly.”

¹⁵ Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I give you an answer, you will probably kill me. And even if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.”

¹⁶ But King Zedekiah secretly swore an oath to Jeremiah. Zedekiah said, “As surely as the Lord lives, who gives us breath and life, I will not kill you, Jeremiah. And I promise not to give you to the officials who want to kill you.”

¹⁷ Then Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “The Lord God All-Powerful is the God of Israel. This is what he says, ‘If you surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, your life will be saved, and Jerusalem will not be burned down. And you and your family will live. ¹⁸ But if you refuse to surrender, Jerusalem will be given to the Babylonian army. They will burn Jerusalem down, and you will not escape from them.’”

¹⁹ But King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “But I am afraid of the men of Judah who have already gone over to the side of the Babylonian army. I am afraid that the soldiers will give me to those men, and they will treat me badly and hurt me.”

²⁰ But Jeremiah answered, “The soldiers will not give you to the men of Judah. King Zedekiah, obey the Lord by doing what I tell you. Then things will go well for you, and your life will be saved. ²¹ But if you refuse to surrender to the army of Babylon, the Lord has shown me what will happen. This is what he has told me: ²² All the women who are left in the house of the king of Judah will be brought out. They will be brought to the important officials of the king of Babylon. Your women will make fun of you with a song. This is what they will say:

²³ “All your wives and children will be brought out. They will be given to the Babylonian army. You yourself will not escape from the army of Babylon. You will be captured by the king of Babylon, and Jerusalem will be burned down.”

²⁴ Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Don’t tell anyone that I have been talking to you. If you do, you might die. ²⁵ If the officials find out that I talked to you, they will come to you and say, ‘Jeremiah, tell us what you said to King Zedekiah and what he said to you. Be honest with us, and tell us everything, or we will kill you.’ ²⁶ If they say this to you, tell them, ‘I was begging the king not to send me back to the cell in the dungeon under Jonathan’s house. If I were to go back there, I would die.’”

²⁷ It happened that the royal officials of the king did come to Jeremiah to question him. So Jeremiah told them everything the king had ordered him to say. Then they left Jeremiah alone. No one had heard what Jeremiah and the king had talked about.

²⁸ So Jeremiah stayed under guard in the Temple yard until the day Jerusalem was captured.

The Fall of Jerusalem

39 This is how Jerusalem was captured: During the tenth month of the ninth year that Zedekiah was king of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He surrounded the city to defeat it. ² And on the ninth day of the fourth month in Zedekiah’s eleventh year, the wall of Jerusalem was broken through. ³ Then all the royal officials of the king of Babylon came into the city of Jerusalem. They came in and sat down at the Middle Gate. These are the names of the officials: Nergal-Sharezer, the governor of the district of Samgar, a very high official; Nebo Sarsekim, another very high official; and various other important officials were there also.

⁴ King Zedekiah of Judah saw the officials from Babylon, so he and the soldiers with him ran away. They left Jerusalem at night. They went out through the king’s garden and out through the gate that was between the two walls. Then they went toward the desert. ⁵ The Babylonian army chased Zedekiah and the soldiers with him. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They captured Zedekiah and took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was at the town of Riblah in the land of Hamath. At that place Nebuchadnezzar decided what to do to Zedekiah. ⁶ There at the town of Riblah, the king of Babylon killed Zedekiah’s sons and he killed all the royal officials of Judah while Zedekiah watched. ⁷ Then Nebuchadnezzar tore out Zedekiah’s eyes. He put bronze chains on Zedekiah and took him to Babylon.

⁸ The army of Babylon set fire to the king’s palace and the houses of the people of Jerusalem. And they broke down the walls of Jerusalem. ⁹ Nebuzaradan was the commander of the king of Babylon’s special guards. He took all the people who had surrendered to him and all the people still in Jerusalem and made them captives. He carried them away to Babylon. ¹⁰ But commander Nebuzaradan left behind some of the poor people of Judah who owned nothing. Nebuzaradan gave them vineyards and farmland in Judah.

¹¹ Nebuchadnezzar also gave an order about Jeremiah to commander Nebuzaradan: ¹² “Find Jeremiah and take care of him. Don’t hurt him. Give him whatever he asks for.”

¹³ So Nebuzaradan, the commander of the king’s special guards, Nebushazban, a chief officer in the army of Babylon, Nergal-Sharezer, a high official, and all the other officers of the army of Babylon sent for Jeremiah. ¹⁴ They had Jeremiah taken out of the Temple yard where he had been under the guard of the king of Judah. They turned Jeremiah over to Gedaliah^[n] son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan. Gedaliah had orders to take Jeremiah back home. So Jeremiah was taken home, and he stayed among his own people.

The Lord’s Message to Ebed Melech

¹⁵ While the guards were watching Jeremiah in the Temple yard, a message from the Lord came to him. This was the message: ¹⁶ “Jeremiah, go and tell Ebed Melech^[o] the Ethiopian this message: ‘This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of the people of Israel, says: Very soon I will make my messages about this city of Jerusalem come true. My messages will come true through disaster, not through something good. You will see everything come true with your own eyes. ¹⁷ But I will save you on that day, Ebed Melech.’ This is the message from the Lord. ‘You will not be given to the people you are afraid of. ¹⁸ I will save you, Ebed Melech. You will not die from a sword, but you will escape and live. That will happen because you have trusted in me.’” This message is from the Lord.

Jeremiah Is Set Free

40 The message from the Lord came to Jeremiah after he was set free at the city of Ramah. Nebuzaradan, the commander of the king of Babylon’s special guards, found Jeremiah in Ramah. Jeremiah was bound with chains. He was with all the captives from Jerusalem and Judah. They were being taken away in captivity to Babylon. ² When commander Nebuzaradan found Jeremiah, he spoke to him. He said, “Jeremiah, the Lord, your God, announced that this disaster would come to this place. ³ And now the Lord has done everything just as he said he would do. This disaster happened because you people of Judah sinned against the Lord. You did not obey him. ⁴ But now, Jeremiah, I will set you free. I am taking the chains off your wrists. If you want to, come with me to Babylon, and I will take good care of you. But if you don’t want to come with me, then don’t come. Look, the whole country is open to you. Go anywhere you want. ⁵ Or go back to Gedaliah^[p] son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan. The king of Babylon has chosen Gedaliah to be governor over the towns of Judah. Go and live with Gedaliah among the people. Or you can go anywhere you want.”

Then Nebuzaradan gave Jeremiah some food and a present and let him go. ⁶ So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah. He stayed with Gedaliah among those who were left behind in the land of Judah.

The Short Rule of Gedaliah

⁷ There were some soldiers from the army of Judah, officers and their men, still out in the open country when Jerusalem was destroyed. They heard that the king of Babylon had put Gedaliah son of Ahikam in charge of those who were left in the land. Those who were left were men, women, and children who were very poor. They were not carried off to Babylon as captives. ⁸ So the soldiers came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. They were Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan and his brother Jonathan, sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, sons of Ephai from Netophah, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite, and the men who were with them.

⁹ Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, made an oath to make the soldiers and their men feel more secure. This is what he said: “You soldiers, don’t be afraid to serve the Babylonian people. Settle down in the land and serve the king of Babylon. If you do this, things will go well for you. ¹⁰ I myself will live in Mizpah. I will speak for you before the Chaldeans who come here. You leave that work to me. You should harvest the wine, the summer fruit, and the oil. Put what you harvest in your storage jars. Live in the towns that you control.”

¹¹ All the people of Judah who were in the countries of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and all the other countries heard that the king of Babylon had left some people of Judah in the land. And they heard that the king of Babylon had chosen Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, to be governor over them. ¹² When the people of Judah heard this news, they came back to the land of Judah. They came back to Gedaliah at Mizpah from all the countries where they had been scattered. So they came back and gathered a large harvest of wine and summer fruit.

¹³ Johanan son of Kareah and all the officers of the army of Judah who were still in the open country came to Gedaliah. Gedaliah was at the town of Mizpah. ¹⁴ Johanan and the officers with him said to Gedaliah, “Do you know that Baalis, the king of the Ammonites, wants to kill you? He has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to kill you.” But Gedaliah son of Ahikam didn’t believe them.

¹⁵ Then Johanan son of Kareah spoke to Gedaliah in private at Mizpah. Johanan said to Gedaliah, “Let me go and kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah. No one will know anything about it. We should not let Ishmael kill you. That would cause all the people of Judah who are gathered around you to be scattered to different countries again. And that would mean that the few survivors of Judah would be lost.”

¹⁶ But Gedaliah son of Ahikam said to Johanan son of Kareah, “Don’t kill Ishmael. The things you are saying about Ishmael are not true.”

41 In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah (the son of Elishama) came to Gedaliah son of Ahikam. Ishmael came with ten of his men. They came to the town of Mizpah. Ishmael was a member of the king’s family. He had been one of the officers of the king of Judah. Ishmael and his men ate a meal with Gedaliah. ² While they were eating together, Ishmael and his ten men got up and killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam with a sword. Gedaliah was the man the king of Babylon had chosen to be governor of Judah. ³ Ishmael also killed all the men of Judah who were with Gedaliah at the town of Mizpah. He also killed the Babylonian soldiers who were there with Gedaliah.

^4-5 The day after Gedaliah was murdered, 80 men came to Mizpah. They were bringing grain offerings and incense to the Lord’s Temple. They had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes, and cut themselves.^[q] They came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria. None of these men knew that Gedaliah had been murdered. ⁶ Ishmael left Mizpah and went to meet the 80 men. He cried^[r] while he walked out to meet them. Ishmael met them and said, “Come with me to meet with Gedaliah son of Ahikam.” ^7-8 As soon as they were in the city, Ishmael and the men with him began to kill the 80 men and throw them into a deep cistern! But ten of the men said to Ishmael, “Don’t kill us! We have hidden some things in a field. We have wheat and barley and oil and honey.” So Ishmael stopped and didn’t kill them with the others. ⁹ (Ishmael threw the dead bodies into the cistern until it was full, and that cistern was very big! It had been built by a king of Judah named Asa. King Asa had made the cistern so that during war there would be water in the city.^[s] Asa did this to protect his city from King Baasha of Israel.)

¹⁰ Ishmael captured all the other people in the town of Mizpah and started to cross over to the country of the Ammonites. They included the king’s daughters, and all those who were left there. Nebuzaradan, the commander of the king of Babylon’s special guards, had chosen Gedaliah to watch over those people.

¹¹ Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him heard about all the evil things Ishmael had done. ¹² So Johanan and the army officers with him took their men and went to fight Ishmael son of Nethaniah. They caught Ishmael near the big pool of water that is at the town of Gibeon. ¹³ When the captives that Ishmael had taken saw Johanan and the army officers, they were very happy. ¹⁴ Then all the captives who Ishmael had taken from the town of Mizpah ran to Johanan son of Kareah. ¹⁵ But Ishmael and eight of his men escaped from Johanan and ran away to the Ammonites.

¹⁶ So Johanan son of Kareah and all his army officers rescued the captives. Ishmael had murdered Gedaliah and then he had taken those people from Mizpah. Among the survivors were soldiers, women, children, and court officials. Johanan brought them back from the town of Gibeon.

The Escape to Egypt

^17-18 Johanan and the other army officers were afraid of the Chaldeans. The king of Babylon had chosen Gedaliah to be governor of Judah. But Ishmael murdered Gedaliah, and Johanan was afraid that the Chaldeans would be angry. So they decided to run away to Egypt. On the way to Egypt, they stayed at Geruth Kimham, near the town of Bethlehem.

42 While they were at Geruth Kimham, Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah went to Jeremiah the prophet. All the army officers went with Johanan and Jezaniah. All the people, from the least important to the most important, went to Jeremiah. ² They said to him, “Jeremiah, please listen to what we ask. Pray to the Lord your God for all those who are survivors from the family of Judah. Jeremiah, you can see that there are not many of us left. At one time there were many of us. ³ Jeremiah, pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.”

⁴ Then Jeremiah the prophet answered, “I understand what you want me to do. I will pray to the Lord your God, as you asked me to do. I will tell you everything the Lord says. I will not hide anything from you.”

⁵ Then the people said to Jeremiah, “If we don’t do everything the Lord your God tells us, then we hope the Lord will be a true and faithful witness against us. We know he will send you to tell us what to do. ⁶ It doesn’t matter if we like the message or if we don’t like the message. We will obey the Lord our God. We are sending you to the Lord for a message from him. We will obey what he says. Then good things will happen to us. Yes, we will obey the Lord our God.”

⁷ At the end of ten days, the message from the Lord came to Jeremiah. ⁸ Then Jeremiah called together Johanan son of Kareah and the army officers who were with him. He also called all the other people together, from the least important to the most important. ⁹ Then Jeremiah said to them, “You sent me to the Lord, the God of Israel, and I asked him what you wanted me to ask. This is what he says: ¹⁰ ‘If you will stay in Judah, I will make you strong—I will not destroy you. I will plant you, and I will not pull you up. I will do this because I am sad about the terrible things that I made happen to you. ¹¹ Now you are afraid of the king of Babylon. But don’t be afraid of him. Don’t be afraid of the king of Babylon,’ says the Lord, ‘because I am with you. I will save you. I will rescue you. He will not get his hands on you. ¹² I will be kind to you, and the king of Babylon will also treat you with mercy. He will bring you back to your land.’ ¹³ But you might say, ‘We will not stay in Judah.’ If you say that, you will disobey the Lord your God. ¹⁴ And you might say, ‘No, we will go and live in Egypt. We will not be bothered with war there. We will not hear the trumpets of war, and in Egypt we will not be hungry.’ ¹⁵ If you say that, listen to this message from the Lord, you survivors from Judah. This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of the people of Israel, says: ‘If you decide to go and live in Egypt, this will happen: ¹⁶ You are afraid of the sword of war, but it will defeat you there. And you are worried about hunger, but you will be hungry in Egypt. You will die there. ¹⁷ Everyone who decides to go live in Egypt will die by war, hunger, or disease. Not one person who goes to Egypt will survive. Not one of them will escape the terrible things that I will bring to them.’

¹⁸ “This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of the people of Israel, says: ‘I showed my anger against Jerusalem. I punished the people who lived there. In the same way I will show my anger against everyone who goes to Egypt. People will use you as an example when they ask for bad things to happen to other people. You will become like a curse word. People will be ashamed of you, and they will insult you. And you will never see Judah again.’

¹⁹ “Survivors of Judah, the Lord told you: ‘Don’t go to Egypt.’ I warn you right now, ²⁰ you are making a mistake that will cause your deaths. You sent me to the Lord your God. You said to me, ‘Pray to the Lord our God for us. Tell us everything the Lord our God says to do. We will obey him.’ ²¹ So today I have told you the message from the Lord. But you have not obeyed the Lord your God. You have not done all that he sent me to tell you to do. ²² So now be sure you understand this: You want to go live in Egypt. But these things will happen to you in Egypt: You will die by a sword, or hunger, or terrible sickness.”

43 So Jeremiah finished telling the people the message from the Lord their God. He told them everything that the Lord their God had sent him to tell them.

² Azariah son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and some other men were proud and stubborn. They became angry with Jeremiah. They said to him, “Jeremiah, you are lying! The Lord our God didn’t send you to say to us, ‘You must not go to Egypt to live there.’ ³ Jeremiah, we think that Baruch son of Neriah is encouraging you to be against us. He wants you to give us to the Babylonians. He wants you to do this so they can kill us. Or he wants you to do this so that they can make us captives and take us to Babylon.”

⁴ So Johanan, the army officers, and all the people disobeyed the Lord’s command. The Lord had commanded them to stay in Judah. ⁵ But Johanan, son of Kareah, and the army officers did not obey this command. Instead, they took the survivors from Judah to Egypt. In the past the enemy had taken the survivors to other countries, but they had come back to Judah. ⁶ Now Johanan and all the army officers took all the men, women, and children and led them to Egypt. Among those people were the king’s daughters. (Nebuzaradan had put Gedaliah in charge of those people. Nebuzaradan was the commander of the king of Babylon’s special guards.) Johanan also took Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah. ⁷ These people didn’t listen to the Lord. So they all went to Egypt to the town of Tahpanhes.^[t]

⁸ In the town of Tahpanhes, Jeremiah received this message from the Lord: ⁹ “Jeremiah, get some large stones. Take them and bury them in the clay and brick sidewalk in front of Pharaoh’s official building in Tahpanhes. Do this while the people of Judah are watching you. ¹⁰ Then say to those who are watching you: ‘This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: I will send for King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to come here. He is my servant, and I will set his throne over these stones I have buried here. Nebuchadnezzar will spread his canopy^[u] above these stones. ¹¹ He will come here and attack Egypt. He will bring death to those who are to die. He will bring captivity to those who are to be taken captive. And he will bring the sword to those who are to be killed with a sword. ¹² Nebuchadnezzar will start a fire in the temples of the false gods of Egypt. He will burn the temples and he will take the idols away. Shepherds pick the bugs and thorns off their clothes to make them clean. In the same way Nebuchadnezzar will pick Egypt clean. Then he will safely leave Egypt. ¹³ He will destroy the memorial stones that are in the temple of the Sun God^[v] in Egypt, and he will burn down the temples of the false gods of Egypt.’”

The Lord Warns the People of Judah

44 Jeremiah received a message from the Lord for all the people of Judah living in Egypt. The message was for the people of Judah living in the towns of Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and southern Egypt. This was the message: ² “This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: ‘You people saw the disasters that I brought on the city of Jerusalem and on all the towns of Judah. The towns are empty piles of stones today. ³ They were destroyed because the people living in them did evil. They gave sacrifices to other gods, and that made me angry! Your people and your ancestors did not worship those gods in the past. ⁴ I sent my servants, the prophets, to those people again and again. They spoke my message and said to the people, “Don’t do this terrible thing. I hate for you to worship idols.” ⁵ But they didn’t listen to the prophets or pay attention to them. They didn’t stop doing wicked things. They didn’t stop making sacrifices to other gods. ⁶ So I showed my anger against them. I punished the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. My anger made Jerusalem and the towns of Judah the empty piles of stone they are today.’

⁷ “So this is what the Lord God All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: ‘Why are you hurting yourselves by continuing to worship idols? You are separating the men and women, the children and babies from the family of Judah. And so you leave yourselves without anyone left from the family of Judah. ⁸ Why do you people want to make me angry by making idols? Now you are living in Egypt. And now you are making me angry by offering sacrifices to the false gods of Egypt. You will destroy yourselves, and it will be your own fault. The people of all the other nations on the earth will say bad things about you and make fun of you. ⁹ Have you forgotten about the wicked things your ancestors did? And have you forgotten about the wicked things the kings and queens of Judah did? Have you forgotten about the wicked things you and your wives did in Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁰ Even to this day the people of Judah have not made themselves humble. They have not shown any respect for me, and they have not followed my teachings. They have not obeyed the laws I gave you and your ancestors.’

¹¹ “So this is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: ‘I have decided to make terrible things happen to you. I will destroy the whole family of Judah. ¹² There were a few survivors from Judah. They came here to Egypt. But I will destroy the few survivors from the family of Judah. They will be killed with swords or die from hunger. The people of other nations will point at them and wish evil for them. People will be shocked and frightened by what has happened to them. The name Judah will become a curse word and an insult. ¹³ I will punish those who have gone to live in Egypt. I will use war, hunger, and disease to punish them. I will punish them just as I punished the city of Jerusalem. ¹⁴ Not one of the few survivors of Judah who have gone to live in Egypt will escape my punishment. None of them will survive to come back to Judah. They want to come back to Judah and live there. But not one of them will go back to Judah, except a few people who escape.’”

¹⁵ There were many people from Judah living in southern Egypt. Many of the women from Judah were meeting together in a large group and making sacrifices to other gods, and their husbands knew what they were doing. Those men said to Jeremiah, ¹⁶ “We will not listen to the message from the Lord that you spoke to us. ¹⁷ We promised to make sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven, and we will do everything we promised. We will offer sacrifices and pour out drink offerings in worship to her. We did that in the past. Our ancestors, our kings, and our officials did that in the past. All of us did those things in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. When we worshiped the Queen of Heaven, we had plenty of food. We were successful. Nothing bad happened to us. ¹⁸ But then we stopped making sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven, and we stopped pouring out drink offerings to her. And we have had problems ever since we stopped worshiping her. Our people have been killed by war and hunger.”

¹⁹ Then the women spoke up^[w] and said to Jeremiah, “Our husbands knew what we were doing. We had their permission to make sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven. We had their permission to pour out drink offerings to her. Our husbands also knew that we were making cakes that looked like her.”

²⁰ Then Jeremiah spoke to all the men and women who told him these things. ²¹ He said, “The Lord remembered that you made sacrifices in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. You and your ancestors, your kings, your officials, and the people of the land did that. He remembered what you had done and thought about it. ²² The Lord hated the terrible things you did, and he could not be patient with you any longer. So he made your country an empty desert. No one lives there now. Other people say bad things about that country. ²³ The reason all those bad things happened to you is that you made sacrifices to other gods. You sinned against the Lord. You didn’t obey him or follow his teachings or the laws he gave you. You didn’t keep your part of the agreement.^[x]”

²⁴ Then Jeremiah spoke to all the men and women. He said, “All you people of Judah who are now in Egypt, listen to this message from the Lord. ²⁵ This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of the people of Israel, says: ‘You women did what you said you would do. You said, “We will keep the promises we made. We promised to make sacrifices and pour out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven.” So go ahead. Do what you promised you would do. Keep your promises.’ ²⁶ But listen to this message from the Lord, all you people of Judah who are living in Egypt: ‘I, the Lord, use my own great name to make this promise: None of the people of Judah who are now living in Egypt will ever again use my name to make promises. They will never again say, “As surely as the Lord God lives ….” ²⁷ I am watching over the people of Judah, but I am not watching over them to take care of them. I am watching over them to bring them harm. The people of Judah who live in Egypt will die from hunger or be killed in war until they are completely destroyed. ²⁸ Some people of Judah will escape being killed by the sword. They will come back to Judah from Egypt. But only a few people of Judah will escape. Then the survivors of Judah who came to live in Egypt will know whose word proves to be true. They will know whether it was my word or their word that came true. ²⁹ I will give you people proof,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will punish you here in Egypt. Then you will know for sure that my promises to harm you will really happen. ³⁰ This will be your proof that I will do what I say.’ This is what the Lord says: ‘Pharaoh Hophra is the king of Egypt. His enemies want to kill him. I will give Pharaoh Hophra to his enemies. Just as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah to his enemy Nebuchadnezzar, in the same way I will give Pharaoh Hophra to his enemies.’”

A Message to Baruch

45 In the fourth year that Jehoiakim^[y] son of Josiah was king of Judah, Jeremiah the prophet spoke these things to Baruch son of Neriah. Baruch wrote them on a scroll. This is what Jeremiah said to Baruch: ² “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you: ³ ‘Baruch, you have said, “It is very bad for me. The Lord has given me sorrow along with my pain. I am very tired. I am worn out because of my suffering. I cannot find rest.” ⁴ Jeremiah, tell Baruch that this is what the Lord says: I will tear down what I have built, and I will pull up what I have planted. I will do that everywhere in Judah. ⁵ Baruch, you are looking for great things for yourself. Don’t look for them, because I will make terrible things happen to all the people.’ This is what the Lord said. ‘You will have to go many places. But I will let you escape alive wherever you go.’”

The Lord’s Messages About the Nations

46 These messages about different nations came to Jeremiah the prophet from the Lord.

Messages About Egypt

² This message is about the nation of Egypt. It is about the army of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt. His army was defeated at the town of Carchemish. Carchemish is on the Euphrates River. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated the army of Pharaoh Neco at Carchemish in the fourth year that Jehoiakim^[z] son of Josiah was king of Judah. The Lord said,

¹³ This is the message the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about Nebuchadnezzar coming to attack Egypt.

²⁵ The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says, “Very soon I will punish Amon,^[ac] the god of Thebes, and I will punish Pharaoh, Egypt, and her gods. I will punish the kings of Egypt, and I will punish the people who depend on Pharaoh. ²⁶ I will let all of them be defeated by their enemies—their enemies want to kill them. I will give the people to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his servants.

“Long ago, Egypt lived in peace. And after all these times of trouble, Egypt will live in peace again.” This is what the Lord said.

A Message for Northern Israel

A Message About the Philistine People

47 This is the message from the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet about the Philistines. This message came before Pharaoh attacked the city of Gaza.