Bible in 90 Days

²³ The Lord also said to Jeremiah, ²⁴ ‘Some people are saying, “The Lord chose the two nations of Israel and Judah to be his special people. But now he has turned away from them.” You have heard people say those things. They do not think that my people will ever be a nation again. ²⁵ But I promise you this: Nobody can stop the agreement that I have made with the day and the night. I have also commanded the earth and the sky to obey certain laws. ²⁶ In the same way, I will never change my promise to the descendants of Jacob and to my servant David. I will always choose one of David's descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.^[a] I will bring them back to their own land. I will be kind to them and forgive them.’

God warns Zedekiah

34 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah again, while King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his army were attacking Jerusalem. Soldiers from all the kingdoms that King Nebuchadnezzar ruled joined with Babylon's own soldiers to make a large army. They were attacking Jerusalem and the towns around it. ² The Lord, Israel's God, said to Jeremiah, ‘Go to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and give him this message: The Lord says, “I will put this city under the power of the king of Babylon. He will burn it down. ³ You will not be able to escape. Babylon's soldiers will certainly take hold of you. They will take you to the king of Babylon. You will have to stand in front of the king of Babylon and answer his questions. Then you will go to Babylon as his prisoner.

⁴ But listen to the promise that the Lord makes to you, Zedekiah, king of Judah. I, the Lord, promise you that you will not die in a battle. ⁵ Instead, you will die with peace in your mind. People will burn incense to give you honour when they bury you. They did that for your ancestors who ruled as kings before you. They will do it for you too. When you die, people will weep because they are sad. They will say, ‘This is terrible! Our king has died!’ That is my promise to you, says the Lord.” ’

⁶ The prophet Jeremiah told all this to King Zedekiah of Judah, in Jerusalem. ⁷ This happened when the king of Babylon's army were attacking Jerusalem and the cities of Lachish and Azekah. Those were the only strong cities in Judah that were not yet under his power.

King Zedekiah and the slaves

⁸ At another time, the Lord gave Jeremiah another message for King Zedekiah. Zedekiah had made an agreement with the people of Jerusalem. They all agreed to let their slaves go free. ⁹ Everyone in Judah who had a Hebrew slave must let their slave go free, both male and female slaves. Nobody should keep another Israelite person as their slave. ¹⁰ All the officers and the people agreed with the king that they would do this. They would not continue to have male or female slaves. They let them go free, as they had promised. ¹¹ But later, they decided that they would not do that. They took the men and women back to work for them as slaves again. They forced them to do that.

¹² Then the Lord said to Jeremiah, ¹³ ‘The Lord, Israel's God, says this to the people: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt. They had been slaves when they were there. ¹⁴ I told them, “When any Hebrew slave has worked for you for six years, you must let them go free. In the seventh year after they sold themselves to you, you must set them free.”^[b] But your ancestors did not listen to me. They did not obey me. ¹⁵ But now, you yourselves agreed to do what pleases me. You decided to obey me. You made a serious agreement with me in the temple which is my home. You let your slaves go free. ¹⁶ But now you have turned back to your old ways. You have refused to give me honour. You had let your slaves go free, as they wanted to do. But now you have forced them to work for you as your slaves again.

¹⁷ So I, the Lord, tell you this: You have not obeyed me. You have not let your Israelite slaves become free men and women. So now I will make you free! Yes, you will be free to let war, famine or disease kill you. People of all the kingdoms in the world will see how disgusting you are. ¹⁸ I will punish the people who did not obey the agreement that they made with me. When they made that agreement, they cut a young cow into two pieces and they walked between the pieces. Because they have not obeyed their agreement, I will now cut them into pieces, like the young cow.^[c]

¹⁹ I will punish the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the king's officers and the priests. I will punish all the people of Judah who refused to obey the agreement that they made with me. ²⁰ I will put them under the power of their enemies. Their enemies will kill them. Birds and wild animals will eat their dead bodies as food.

²¹ I will also put King Zedekiah of Judah and his officers under the power of their enemies. Their enemies will want to kill them. The king of Babylon's army has stopped attacking Jerusalem for a time. But I will put King Zedekiah and his officers under their power. ²² I will command Babylon's army to return to this city. They will fight against it and they will take it. They will burn the city down. I will also cause the other towns of Judah to become heaps of stones. Nobody will live in them any more.’

Rekab's descendants

35 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah when Josiah's son Jehoiakim ruled Judah as king. ² He said, ‘Go to the place where Rekab's descendants live. Ask them to come to the Lord's temple. Take them into one of the temple's small rooms. Give to them some wine to drink.’

³ So I went to meet with Rekab's descendants. They were Jaazaniah, son of Jeremiah and grandson of Habazziniah.^[d] I also met with Jaazaniah's brothers and all his sons. Those were all the descendants of Rekab. ⁴ I took them to the Lord's temple. I took them into the room where the disciples of the prophet Hanan lived. He was the son of Igdaliah. That room was next to the room where the temple officers lived. It was also above the room where Shallum's son Maaseiah lived. He was one of the guards for the doors of the temple. ⁵ I put some jars of wine and some cups in front of Rekab's descendants. I said to them, ‘Drink some wine.’

⁶ They replied, ‘We do not drink wine. Our ancestor Jonadab, son of Rekab, said to us, “You and your descendants must never drink wine. ⁷ You must not build houses. You must not plant seed in fields to grow crops. You must not plant vines or have a vineyard. Instead, you must always live in tents. If you live in that way, you will live for a long time as you travel around in the land.”

⁸ We have obeyed all the rules that our ancestor Jonadab gave to us. Our wives and our children have also obeyed them. We have never drunk wine. ⁹ We have never built houses to be our homes. We have no fields or vineyards and we grow no crops. ¹⁰ We have always lived in tents. So we have completely obeyed our ancestor Jonadab. We have done everything that he commanded us to do. ¹¹ But when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked our land, we decided to come to Jerusalem. We said, “We must leave here and go to Jerusalem. We must escape from the armies of Babylon and Syria.” That is why we are now living in Jerusalem.’

¹² Then the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah. ¹³ The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, said to him, ‘Go and speak to the people of Judah, including those who live in Jerusalem. Tell them that I, the Lord, say this: “Learn a lesson about how you should obey me! ¹⁴ Rekab's son Jonadab commanded his descendants that they must not drink wine. They have obeyed his command. Even now, they have never drunk wine because their ancestor told them not to do that. But as for you, I have spoken to you very many times and you have not obeyed me! ¹⁵ I have sent my servants the prophets to warn you many times. They told you, ‘You must all stop doing wicked things. Instead, start doing the things that are right. Do not serve other gods and worship them. Then you will continue to live in this land that I gave to you and to your ancestors.’ But you did not listen to my message. You did not obey me. ¹⁶ The descendants of Rekab's son Jonadab obeyed the commands that their ancestor gave to them. But as for you, my people, you have not obeyed me.”

¹⁷ So the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “Listen to me! I will soon punish the people of Judah and Jerusalem with all the things that I warned them about. I spoke to them, but they did not listen. I called out to them, but they did not answer. So now I will punish them.” ’

¹⁸ Then Jeremiah said to Rekab's descendants, ‘The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “You have completely obeyed the commands of your ancestor Jonadab. You have done everything that he told you to do.” ¹⁹ So the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, also says, “There will always be a male descendant of Rekab's son Jonadab who will live to serve me.” ’

King Jehoiakim destroys the Lord's message

36 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah in the fourth year that Josiah's son Jehoiakim ruled Judah as king. He said, ² ‘Write down on a scroll all the messages that I have spoken to you. Since Josiah was king until now, I have given you messages about Israel, Judah and the other nations. Write them all on a scroll. ³ That will warn the people of Judah about the very bad things that I have decided to do to them. When they hear about it, perhaps they will stop doing the evil things that they have been doing. Then I will forgive their sins and everything wrong that they have done.’

⁴ So Jeremiah told Neriah's son Baruch to come to him. Jeremiah spoke all the words that the Lord had told him to say. Baruch wrote them down on a scroll. ⁵ Then Jeremiah said to Baruch, ‘The officers will not let me go to the Lord's temple. ⁶ So you must go to the temple yourself. Go on a special day when people are fasting and they have come from their towns. Read the words that you wrote on the scroll to the people, so that they can all hear them. ⁷ Perhaps they will ask the Lord to forgive them. Perhaps they will stop doing all the evil things that they have been doing. The Lord is very angry with them and he has warned them that he will punish them.’

⁸ Neriah's son Baruch did everything that the prophet Jeremiah had told him. He went to the Lord's temple. He read the Lord's message that was written on the scroll. ⁹ That happened in the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim ruled Judah as king. People from all Judah's towns had come to Jerusalem. They joined with the people of Jerusalem to fast and pray in the Lord's temple. ¹⁰ Baruch stood in the temple, at the entrance of the room of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan. Shaphan had been the king's secretary. Gemariah's room was in the higher yard of the temple, near the New Gate. Baruch stood there. He read the Lord's message that Jeremiah had told him to write on the scroll.

¹¹ Micaiah, son of Gemariah and grandson of Shaphan, heard the Lord's message as Baruch read it aloud. ¹² Then Micaiah went to the secretary's room in the king's palace. All the king's officers were meeting there. They included: the king's secretary Elishama, Shemaiah's son Delaiah, Akbor's son Elnathan, Shaphan's son Gemariah, and Hananiah's son Zedekiah. All the officers were sitting there. ¹³ Micaiah told them everything that he had heard when Baruch read the scroll aloud to the people. ¹⁴ The officers sent somebody to go and speak to Baruch. They sent Jehudi, son of Nethaniah, and the grandson of Cushi's son, Shelemiah. They told him to say to Baruch, ‘Bring here to us the scroll with the words that you read aloud to the people.’

So Neriah's son Baruch went to them. He took the scroll with him in his hand. ¹⁵ The officers said to him, ‘Please sit down and read it to us.’ So Baruch read it to them. ¹⁶ They listened to the words that Baruch had written on the scroll. They looked at each other in fear. They said to Baruch, ‘We must certainly report this to the king. We must tell him about everything that you have read to us.’ ¹⁷ They also asked Baruch, ‘Please tell us how you wrote all these words. Did Jeremiah himself tell you what to write?’

¹⁸ Baruch said, ‘Yes, he told me what I should write. Then I used ink to write the words on this scroll.’^[e]

¹⁹ The officers said to Baruch, ‘You and Jeremiah must go and hide yourselves. Do not tell anyone where you are.’

²⁰ The officers put the scroll into the room of Elishama, the king's secretary, to keep it safe. Then they went to see the king. He was in the palace yard. They reported to him everything that they had heard. ²¹ Then the king sent Jehudi to fetch the scroll. Jehudi brought the scroll from Elishama's room in the temple. Then he read the message that was written on the scroll. He read it aloud to the king and to all the officers who were standing around him. ²² It was autumn, so the king was sitting in the rooms that he used when it was cold. A fire was burning beside him. ²³ Jehudi read a small section of the words that were written on the scroll. As soon as he finished each section, the king cut off that part of the scroll with a knife. He threw each piece of the scroll on the fire. The king continued to do that until fire had burned up the whole scroll. ²⁴ As the king and his officers heard Jehudi read each section of the scroll, it did not make them afraid. None of them tore their clothes because they were upset. ²⁵ Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah asked the king very strongly not to burn the scroll. But the king refused to listen to them. ²⁶ Instead, the king told Prince Jerahmeel to go and find the secretary Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah. Jerahmeel went with Azriel's son Seraiah and Abdeel's son Shelemiah to take hold of them. But the Lord had hidden Baruch and Jeremiah.

Baruch and Jeremiah write another scroll

²⁷ After the king had destroyed the scroll on which Baruch had written Jeremiah's words, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah again. ²⁸ He said, ‘Take another scroll. Write on it everything that was written on the first scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah burned in the fire. ²⁹ Then tell the king that the Lord says this: “You burned the scroll because you did not like the message that was written on it. It said that the king of Babylon would come to destroy this land, with all its people and animals. You warned Jeremiah that he should not write things like that.” ³⁰ So now the Lord says this to you, Jehoiakim, king of Judah: “None of your descendants will rule David's kingdom of Judah. When you die, people will not bury your body. They will throw your dead body on the ground. As it lies there, the sun will burn it in the daytime. At night it will be cold with frost. ³¹ I will punish you, your descendants and your officers because you have all done wicked things. I will also bring terrible trouble on the people of Jerusalem and all of Judah. I will punish everyone in the way that I promised I would do. I warned them, but they did not listen to me.” ’

³² Then Jeremiah took another scroll. He gave it to Neriah's son, Baruch, the secretary. Jeremiah spoke the same message that Baruch had written on the first scroll. That was the scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah had burned in the fire. They also added more messages that were like the first one.

Zedekiah rules Judah as king

37 Josiah's son Zedekiah became king of Judah. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon chose Zedekiah to be king instead of Jehoiakim's son, Jeconiah. ² Zedekiah did not obey the Lord's messages that Jeremiah spoke. The king's officers and the people of Judah did not obey those messages either.

The Lord warns King Zedekiah

³ King Zedekiah sent a message to the prophet Jeremiah. He sent Shelemiah's son Jehucal, and Maaseiah's son Zephaniah, the priest, to deliver this message: ‘Please pray to the Lord our God for us.’

⁴ Jeremiah was a free man at this time. They had not yet put him in prison. He could go where he wanted among the people. ⁵ The army of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had marched out of Egypt. Babylon's soldiers who were attacking Jerusalem heard news about that. So they went away from Jerusalem.

⁶ Then the Lord gave this message to the prophet Jeremiah: ⁷ ‘The Lord, Israel's God, says: Go to the king of Judah, who sent you to ask for my help. Tell him, “Pharaoh's army marched out of Egypt to bring you help. But they will turn back and return to their own land, Egypt. ⁸ Then Babylon's army will return here. They will attack this city. They will take it for themselves. They will burn it completely.”

⁹ The Lord also says, “Do not deceive yourselves. Do not think that Babylon's soldiers will go away and leave you alone. They will not go away! ¹⁰ You might even win the fight against the whole army that is attacking you. There might be only a few of Babylon's soldiers who remain. You might have hurt them so much that they are lying down in their tents. But those weak men would still get up and attack this city. They would completely burn down this city.” ’

They put Jeremiah in prison

¹¹ At that time, Babylon's army had gone away from Jerusalem because Pharaoh's army was coming. ¹² So Jeremiah started to leave Jerusalem. He wanted to go to the land that belonged to Benjamin's tribe. He wanted to receive his part of the land that belonged to his family. ¹³ He was going out through the Benjamin gate of the city. Irijah, the son of Shelemiah and grandson of Hananiah, stopped him. Irijah was the captain of the guards at the gate. He took hold of Jeremiah. He said, ‘You are going out of the city to join Babylon's army!’ ¹⁴ Jeremiah said, ‘That is not true! I would never help the soldiers from Babylon.’ But Irijah would not listen to him. So he took Jeremiah to the king's officers as his prisoner. ¹⁵ The officers were very angry with Jeremiah. They beat him with a stick. They put him in a strong room of Jonathan's house. Jonathan was the king's secretary. They had made his house into a place to keep hold of prisoners.

¹⁶ They put Jeremiah in a small room in the ground under the house. He stayed there for a long time. ¹⁷ Then King Zedekiah told his officers to bring Jeremiah to the palace. When they were alone, the king asked him, ‘Do you have any message for me from the Lord?’

Jeremiah replied, ‘Yes, there is a message. Soldiers will put you under the power of the king of Babylon.’ ¹⁸ Then Jeremiah asked King Zedekiah, ‘Why have your officers put me in prison? Do I deserve that? Have I done something bad against you, your officers or the people of Judah? ¹⁹ Your own prophets said that the king of Babylon would not attack you or the land of Judah. That was a lie, so what have you done to them? ²⁰ Please help me now, my master, the king. Do not send me back to the house of your secretary Jonathan. If you do that, I will die there.’

²¹ Then King Zedekiah told his officers to put Jeremiah in the palace yard where the guards would watch him. He told them to get bread every day from the bakers in the city and give it to Jeremiah. They should do that until there was no more bread in the city.^[f]

So they kept Jeremiah as prisoner in the palace yard with the royal guards.

Officers put Jeremiah into a deep hole

38 Some of Jerusalem's officers heard the things that Jeremiah had been telling the people. They were Mattan's son Shephatiah, Pashhur's son Gedaliah, Shelemiah's son Jehucal and Malkijah's son Pashhur. ² They had heard him say this: ‘The Lord says, “Any people who stay in this city will die. War or famine or disease will kill them. But those people who leave the city will not die. If they put themselves under the power of Babylon's soldiers, they will live.”  ³ The Lord also says, “I will put this city under the power of the King of Babylon's army. They will take it for themselves.” ’

⁴ When the officers heard that, they said to the king, ‘You must punish this man with death. He is making our soldiers who remain in the city afraid. The things that he says are making all the people in the city very afraid. He does not want to help our people. He wants to destroy them.’

⁵ King Zedekiah said to them, ‘You can do to Jeremiah whatever you want to do. I cannot stop you.’

⁶ So the officers took hold of Jeremiah. They put him in a deep hole in the palace yard where the guards were. Prince Malkijah had made the hole to store water. There was no water in the hole, but only mud. They tied ropes around Jeremiah and they slowly dropped him into the hole. Jeremiah fell deep into the mud.

A foreign man rescues Jeremiah from the hole

⁷ There was an officer who served the king in his palace. His name was Ebed-Melech. He came from the country of Ethiopia. He heard the news that some officers had put Jeremiah into the deep hole in the palace yard. At that time the king was sitting as judge at the Benjamin Gate of the city. ⁸ So Ebed-Melech quickly left the palace. He went to speak to the king. He said to him, ⁹ ‘My master, the king, those men have done very wicked things to the prophet Jeremiah. They have put him in a deep hole. He will soon die there because there is no food in the city.’

¹⁰ Then the king gave this command to Ebed-Melech. He said, ‘Take 30 men with you from here. Go and lift Jeremiah out of the deep hole before he dies.’

¹¹ So Ebed-Melech took the men with him. He went to a room in the palace where they stored valuable things. He took some old clothes and pieces of cloth from there. He tied them to the end of some ropes. Then he let them drop down into the deep hole where Jeremiah was. ¹² He said to Jeremiah, ‘Put these old cloths and clothes under your arms. Then tie the ropes over them so that they do not hurt you.’ Jeremiah did as Ebed-Melech told him. ¹³ Then they pulled Jeremiah up out of the deep hole. But Jeremiah still had to stay in the palace yard with the guards.

King Zedekiah asks Jeremiah more questions

¹⁴ One day, King Zedekiah sent some men to bring Jeremiah to meet with him. They met at the third gate of the Lord's temple. The king said to Jeremiah, ‘I would like to ask you a question. Do not hide anything from me.’ ¹⁵ Jeremiah said to the king, ‘If I give you a true answer, you will surely kill me. If I give you advice, you will not agree.’

¹⁶ But King Zedekiah made a serious promise to Jeremiah. Nobody else knew about it. He said, ‘I promise you that this is true, as surely as the Lord lives. I promise that I will not kill you. And I will not give you to the men who want to kill you.’

¹⁷ Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, ‘The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “You must put yourself under the power of the king of Babylon's officers. If you do that, you will not die. Your enemies will not burn down this city. You and your family will continue to live. ¹⁸ But if you do not agree to be under their power, they will take this city for themselves. They will burn it down. You yourself will become their prisoner.” ’

¹⁹ King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, ‘I am afraid to do that. Some of Judah's people have gone out of the city to help Babylon's army. Babylon's officers might give me to them and they will be very cruel to me.’

²⁰ Jeremiah answered the king, ‘They will not give you to those people of Judah. Obey the Lord and do as I tell you. Then you will continue to enjoy your life. ²¹ But if you refuse to put yourself under the power of the enemy, a terrible thing will happen to you. The Lord has shown me this in a vision. ²² The enemy's soldiers will bring out all the women in the palace of Judah's king. They will give those women to the king of Babylon's officers. The women will say to you,

²³ Babylon's soldiers will take all your wives and your children for themselves. You yourself will not escape from them. The king of Babylon will take hold of you as his prisoner. His soldiers will burn down this city.’

²⁴ Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, ‘Do not tell anyone what we have talked about. If you do tell anyone, you will surely die. ²⁵ My officers may know that we have talked together. They may come to you and ask you, “Tell us what you talked about with the king. Tell us everything that you said. If not, we will kill you.” ²⁶ If that happens, tell them, “I was asking the king to help me. I did not want him to send me back to be a prisoner in Jonathan's house. I did not want to die there.” ’

²⁷ All the officers did come to Jeremiah to ask him about his meeting with the king. Jeremiah said to them everything that the king had told him to say. Nobody had heard what Jeremiah and the king had really talked about. So the officers stopped asking Jeremiah any more questions.

²⁸ After that, Jeremiah stayed in the palace yard as a prisoner. He stayed there until the day when Babylon's army took Jerusalem for themselves.

Babylon's army takes power over Jerusalem

39 This is how the army of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon got power over Jerusalem. In the tenth month of the ninth year that Zedekiah had ruled Judah as king, Nebuchadnezzar's army marched to attack Jerusalem. The whole army made their camp around the city. ² They stayed there until the ninth day of the fourth month of the 11th year that Zedekiah had been king. On that day, Babylon's soldiers broke through the walls of the city. ³ The king of Babylon's officers came into Jerusalem. They sat at the Middle Gate of the city. The officers were Nergal-Sharezer from Samgar, an important officer called Nebo-Sarsekim, and another important officer, also called Nergal-Sharezer. All the other officers of the king of Babylon met with them there. ⁴ King Zedekiah of Judah and all his soldiers tried to escape when they saw them. They left the city at night. They took a path through the king's garden and went through the gate between the two walls of the city. Then they ran towards the Jordan Valley.

⁵ But the soldiers of Babylon's army chased after them. They caught Zedekiah on the flat land near Jericho. They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Riblah, in the region called Hamath. King Nebuchadnezzar decided that Zedekiah was guilty. ⁶ He decided how he would punish Zedekiah. He told his soldiers to kill all Zedekiah's sons, while Zedekiah watched. Nebuchadnezzar also punished all the important men of Judah with death. ⁷ Then they cut out Zedekiah's eyes to make him blind. They tied him with chains to take him to Babylon as their prisoner.

⁸ Babylon's soldiers destroyed the king's palace with fire. They also destroyed the temple and the people's houses in Jerusalem. They knocked down the walls around the city. ⁹ Nebuzaradan, the captain of King Nebuchadnezzar's guards, took hold of all the people who remained in Jerusalem. He sent them away as prisoners to Babylon. He also sent away the people of Judah who had joined Babylon's army. ¹⁰ But Captain Nebuzaradan let some of the very poor people remain in Judah. He gave them some fields and vineyards to take care of.

¹¹ King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had commanded Captain Nebuzaradan what to do with Jeremiah. ¹² He said, ‘Find Jeremiah and take care of him. Do not hurt him. Help him in any way that he asks you.’ ¹³ So Captain Nebuzaradan, an important officer called Nebushazban, Nergal-Sharezer, the king's advisor, and all King Nebuchadnezzar's other officers did that. ¹⁴ They sent some men to bring Jeremiah from the palace yard. They told Gedaliah to take care of Jeremiah. Gedaliah was Ahikam's son and Shaphan's grandson. He took Jeremiah to his home. So Jeremiah continued to live among his own people.

The Lord's promise to Ebed-Melech

¹⁵ The Lord had spoken to Jeremiah while he was still a prisoner in the palace yard. ¹⁶ The Lord said, ‘Tell the Ethiopian man, Ebed-Melech, this: The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “I will punish this city as I promised to do. I will send terrible trouble instead of help. You will see this when it happens. ¹⁷ But I will rescue you at that time. I promise you that. The people that you are afraid of will not take hold of you. ¹⁸ I will certainly save you. You will not die in battle. You trusted me, so I will keep your life safe. I, the Lord, say that to you.” ’

Jeremiah becomes free

40 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah again after Captain Nebuzaradan let him go free at Ramah. Jeremiah was with all the other people of Jerusalem and Judah that Captain Nebuzaradan was taking to Babylon. He was taking them in chains, as his prisoners. But he removed the chains from Jeremiah in Ramah.^{[g] 2} He said this to Jeremiah when they were alone: ‘The Lord your God warned your people that he would bring trouble to this place. ³ Now he has done that. The Lord has done what he promised to do. He sent this trouble because your people did not obey the Lord. They turned against him. ⁴ But today I am taking the chains off your hands so that you can go free. You can come with me to Babylon, if you choose to do that. If you come, I will take care of you. But if you do not choose to come with me, you do not have to do that. You are a free man. You may go to any part of the land that you choose.’

⁵ But before Jeremiah turned away from him, Captain Nebuzaradan said, ‘Return to Ahikam's son Gedaliah. The king of Babylon chose him to rule over the towns of Judah. Go and live with Gedaliah, among the people of Judah. Or you may go to any other place that you choose.’

Captain Nebuzaradan gave Jeremiah some food and a gift. Then he let him go. ⁶ So Jeremiah went to live with Gedaliah in Mizpah. He stayed among the few people who continued to live in Judah.

Gedaliah rules Judah

⁷ Some officers of Judah's army were living in fields in the country, with their soldiers.^[h] They heard news that the king of Babylon had chosen Ahikam's son Gedaliah to have authority over Judah. He ruled over the very poor people of Judah who continued to live there. They were the men, women and children that Babylon's soldiers had not taken away as prisoners. ⁸ These army officers and their soldiers came to meet with Gedaliah at Mizpah. The officers were:

⁹ Gedaliah made a serious promise to them that he would not hurt them. He said, ‘Do not be afraid to serve the soldiers from Babylon. Make your homes here in our land, but agree to serve the king of Babylon. If you do that, you will be successful. ¹⁰ I myself will stay here in Mizpah. If Babylon's officers come to visit me, I will speak on your behalf. But you should go and live in the towns that you have taken for yourselves. Then you can eat the things that you grow in your fields. You can pick grapes to make wine and olives to make oil. You can pick dates and figs. You can store these things in jars.’

¹¹ There were people of Judah who had run away to live in Moab, Ammon, Edom and other countries. They heard the news that the king of Babylon had let some people continue to live in Judah. They also heard that he had chosen Ahikam's son Gedaliah to be their ruler. ¹² As a result, all those people returned to their homes in Judah. On their way, they stopped in Mizpah to meet Gedaliah. When they arrived, they picked a big harvest of dates, figs and grapes to make wine.

Ishmael murders Gedaliah

¹³ Kareah's son Johanan came to Mizpah to see Gedaliah. He came with the other army officers who had been hiding in the country. ¹⁴ They said to Gedaliah, ‘You should know that King Baalis of Ammon has sent Nethaniah's son Ishmael to kill you.’ But Gedaliah did not believe them.

¹⁵ So while Johanan was in Mizpah, he went to speak to Gedaliah alone. He said, ‘Let me go and kill Nethaniah's son Ishmael. Nobody will know who did it. If I do not kill him, he will surely kill you. Then the people of Judah who are here with you will run away. The few people who still remain in Judah will all disappear.’

¹⁶ But Ahikam's son Gedaliah, said to Kareah's son Johanan, ‘Do not do that! I do not believe the things that you tell me about Ishmael.’

41 But in the seventh month of the year, Nethaniah's son Ishmael went to Mizpah to visit Ahikam's son Gedaliah. Ishmael was the grandson of Elishama who belonged to the royal family. He had been an officer who served King Zedekiah. Ishmael brought ten of his men with him. They were all eating a meal with Gedaliah in Mizpah. ² During the meal, Ishmael and his ten men stood up. They took hold of their swords and they killed Gedaliah, Ahikam's son and grandson of Shaphan. Ishmael and his men killed the man that the king of Babylon had chosen to rule Judah. ³ Ishmael also killed the men of Judah and the soldiers of Babylon who were there with Gedaliah.

⁴ The next day, before anyone knew about Gedaliah's murder, ⁵ 80 men arrived in Mizpah. They had come from their homes in Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria. They brought grain offerings and incense to offer to the Lord in his temple. They had cut off their beards, torn their clothes and cut their skin to show that they were very upset. ⁶ Nethaniah's son Ishmael went out of the city to meet them. He was weeping as he went. When he met the men, he said to them, ‘Come with me to meet Ahikam's son Gedaliah.’ ⁷ So they all went into the city. Then Ishmael and his men killed them. They threw the dead bodies into a deep hole which stored water. ⁸ But ten of the men said, ‘Please do not kill us! We have hidden lots of wheat, barley, olive oil and honey in a field. We will give it to you.’ So Ishmael let them stay alive. He did not kill them with the other men. ⁹ Ishmael filled the deep hole with all the dead bodies of the men he had murdered. The hole had been built by King Asa to store water. Asa had dug holes like that to keep the city safe from King Baasha of Israel.

¹⁰ Then Ishmael took hold of all the other people in Mizpah who were still alive. He made them his prisoners. These people included the king's daughters, as well as all the other people who remained in Mizpah. Captain Nebuzaradan had said that Ahikam's son Gedaliah would have authority over those people. But Ishmael took them away as his prisoners. He started to take them towards the land of Ammon.

Johanan rescues the people from Ishmael

¹¹ Kareah's son Johanan and the army officers who were with him heard news about what had happened. They heard about the wicked things that Nethaniah's son Ishmael had done. ¹² So they took all their soldiers to go and fight against Ishmael. They chased after him. They caught him near the large pool at Gibeon. ¹³ All the people that Ishmael had taken as his prisoners saw Johanan and the officers who were with him. They were very happy to see them. ¹⁴ All the people that Ishmael had taken away from Mizpah ran away from him. They went to join Kareah's son Johanan. ¹⁵ But Ishmael and eight of his men escaped from Johanan. They went to live among the Ammonite people.

¹⁶ Johanan and the army officers who were with him led the people away from Gibeon. Those were the people who were still alive in Mizpah after Ishmael had murdered Gedaliah. Now Johanan and his men had rescued them from Ishmael. Johanan brought those men, women, children, soldiers and palace officers away from Gibeon.

¹⁷ They started on the way towards Egypt. They stopped at Geruth Kimham, a town that is near Bethlehem. ¹⁸ They were afraid that the soldiers of Babylon would want to kill them. They would be angry because Nethaniah's son Ishmael had killed Ahikam's son Gedaliah. The king of Babylon had chosen Gedaliah to rule Judah.

The people do not obey the Lord's message

42 All the army officers went to speak to the prophet Jeremiah. They included Kareah's son Johanan and Hoshaiah's son Jezaniah. All the people went with them, important people and ordinary people. ² They said to Jeremiah, ‘Please listen to us. Pray to the Lord your God for those of us who remain alive. You can see that only a few of us remain from the many people that we were before. ³ Please ask the Lord to tell us where we should go. Ask him what we should do.’

⁴ The prophet Jeremiah replied, ‘I agree to do that. I will pray to the Lord your God, as you have asked me to do. I will tell you everything that the Lord says to answer you. I will not hide anything from you.’

⁵ They said to Jeremiah, ‘We promise to do everything that the Lord sends you to say to us. We ask the Lord to listen to our promise. May he punish us if we do not do what we have promised to do. ⁶ We have asked you to pray to the Lord our God for us. We will obey what he tells us to do. We will obey him whether we like what he tells us, or whether we do not like it. We will obey him because we want to enjoy a good life.’

⁷ Ten days after that, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah. ⁸ So Jeremiah told Kareah's son Johanan, the other army officers and all the people to come to him. That included everyone, important people and ordinary people. ⁹ Jeremiah said to them, ‘You sent me to ask the Lord, Israel's God, what you should do. He says this to you: ¹⁰ “You should stay here in the land of Judah. If you do that, I will build you up and make you strong again. I will not knock you down. I will help you to grow in the land, like plants with good roots. I will not pull you up. I have punished you with terrible trouble, and that makes me very sad. So now I will help you. ¹¹ You are afraid of the king of Babylon now, but do not be afraid of him any more. I am with you to help you. I will save you and I will rescue you from his power. I, the Lord, promise you this. ¹² I will be kind and I will help you. I will cause the king of Babylon to be kind to you. He will let you return to your own land as your home.”

¹³ You must not refuse to obey this message from the Lord your God. Do not say, “We will not stay here in this land.” ¹⁴ Do not say, “We refuse to stay here. Instead, we will go to live in Egypt. There, we will not have trouble from wars. We will not hear the noise of trumpets as people fight battles. We will not be hungry because there is no food.” ¹⁵ If you say those things, then the Lord has a message for you, you people who remain in Judah. The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “If you decide to go and live in Egypt, I will cause you to have the same troubles there. ¹⁶ You are afraid of wars here, but I will cause wars to hurt you in Egypt. You worry that you might be hungry here, but I will make you hungry in Egypt. Finally, you will die in Egypt. ¹⁷ All the people who decide to go and live in Egypt will die there. War, famine or disease will kill everyone. Nobody will escape from the terrible trouble that I will send. Nobody will remain alive.”

¹⁸ The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “If you go to Egypt, I will be very angry with you. I punished the people of Jerusalem because I was very angry with them. I will be as angry as that with you, if you go to Egypt. Other people will think that you are disgusting. They will insult you. They will use your name as a curse, because God has cursed you. You will never see this land of Judah again.”

¹⁹ Listen to me, you people who still remain in Judah. The Lord has said to you, “Do not go to Egypt.” You must understand that I am now warning you. ²⁰ You made a terrible mistake when you asked me to pray to the Lord your God for you. You told me, “Tell us everything that the Lord our God says, and we will do it.” ²¹ Today I have told you what he said. But you still do not want to obey the Lord. You will not do what he sent me to tell you. ²² So now I tell you this: When you go to the place where you want to live, war, famine or disease will kill you.’

The people of Judah go to Egypt

43 Jeremiah finished telling the people the Lord's message to them. He told them everything that the Lord their God had sent him to tell them. ² Then Hoshaiah's son Azariah and Kareah's son Johanan and some other proud men said to Jeremiah, ‘You are speaking lies! The Lord our God has not sent you to say to us, “You must not go to Egypt to live there.” ³ You are telling us what Neriah's son Baruch wants you to say. He wants to hurt us. He wants the soldiers from Babylon to kill us, or to take us as prisoners to Babylon.’

⁴ So Kareah's son Johanan, all the other army officers and all the other people did not obey the Lord's command. They refused to stay in Judah. ⁵ Instead, Johanan and all the officers led the people away. Those were the people who had returned from all the nations where their enemies had taken them as prisoners. They had returned to their homes in Judah. ⁶ Now the army officers led them away. They also took the men, women and children that Captain Nebuzaradan had allowed to remain with Gedaliah. They included the king's daughters. (Gedaliah was Ahikam's son and Shaphan's grandson.) They took the prophet Jeremiah and Neriah's son Baruch with them.

⁷ The people went to Egypt because they did not obey the Lord. They went as far as the city of Tahpanhes.

⁸ When they arrived in Tahpanhes, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah. ⁹ He said, ‘Choose some large stones and take them to Pharaoh's palace that is here in Tahpanhes. Bury the stones under the path at the entrance of the palace. Do it while the people of Judah are watching you. ¹⁰ Then say to the people, “The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says this: I will call for my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, to come here. He will put his throne on the path over these stones that I have hidden. They will put up a royal tent for him to sit under. ¹¹ He will come here and he will attack Egypt.

¹² He will burn the temples of Egypt's gods with fire. He will burn their gods or he will carry them away. He will take everything that he wants from Egypt. He will return home in good health. ¹³ He will knock down the pillars of the temple where people worship their sun god. He will destroy all the temples of Egypt's gods.” ’

God will punish the people of Judah

44 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah about the people of Judah who were now living in Egypt. They were living in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis and places in the south part of Egypt. ² This was the Lord's message to them:

‘The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “You saw the great trouble that I sent to the people of Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah. Their towns have become heaps of stones and nobody lives in them. ³ That happened because of the wicked things that the people did in those places. They offered sacrifices to other gods. They worshipped gods that they never knew before. You and your ancestors did not know those gods either. That made me very angry. ⁴ Many times I sent my servants the prophets to speak to them. They warned them, ‘Do not do this disgusting thing that the Lord hates!’ ⁵ But the people there did not listen to my message. They refused to obey me. They did not stop doing wicked things. They did not stop offering sacrifices to other gods. ⁶ So I became very angry with the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I sent them terrible trouble, like a fire that burned their towns and their streets. That is why their towns have become heaps of stones, as they still are today.” 

⁷ Now the Lord God Almighty, Israel's God, says, “You are causing more trouble for yourselves. Why are you doing that? All the men, women, children and babies will disappear from Judah. None of your people will remain alive. ⁸ You continue to make me angry because of the things that you are doing. You are offering sacrifices to the gods of Egypt, where you now live. As a result, you will destroy yourselves. The people of all the other nations will use your name as a curse. They will all laugh at you. ⁹ Do not forget about all the wicked things that your ancestors did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. I punished them, as well as their kings and their kings' wives. And I punished you and your wives too. ¹⁰ Even now your people are still proud. They have not respected my authority. They have not obeyed the laws and commands that I gave to you and to your ancestors.”

¹¹ So the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “Listen to me! I will certainly cause you to have great trouble. I will destroy all Judah's people. ¹² I will remove the people who remained in Judah and who decided to come here to live in Egypt. They will all die here. War or famine will kill them. All of them will die here in Egypt, important people and ordinary people. Other people will think that they are disgusting. They will insult them. They will use their name as a curse, because God has cursed them. ¹³ I will punish the people who have come to live in Egypt. War, famine or disease will kill them, in the way that I punished the people of Jerusalem. ¹⁴ None of the people who remained in Judah and who came to live here in Egypt will escape. They will not remain alive to return to Judah. They may want very much to return, but only a few will be able to run away and go home.” ’

¹⁵ A large crowd of Judah's people listened to Jeremiah. They came from the places where they now lived in the north and the south of Egypt. Some men were there who knew that their wives were offering sacrifices to other gods. Those men and their wives said to Jeremiah, ¹⁶ ‘We do not believe that your message really comes from the Lord. ¹⁷ So we will continue to do what we have promised to do. We will make sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven. We will pour out drink offerings to her.^[i] That is what our ancestors, our kings and our leaders did when we lived in Jerusalem and in the other towns of Judah. When we did that, we had plenty of food to eat. We enjoyed a good life and we had no troubles. ¹⁸ But since we stopped offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven, we have not had those good things. War and famine have been killing our people.’

¹⁹ The women said, ‘It is true that we offered sacrifices and drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven. We also made cakes that were like her image. But our husbands knew what we were doing and they helped us.’

²⁰ Then Jeremiah said this to all those men and women who had answered him:

²¹ ‘The Lord saw everything that you were doing. You must surely realize that! He knew about the things that you, your ancestors, your kings, your leaders and all the people were doing. He remembered all the sacrifices that you offered to other gods in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. ²² Finally, he had to punish you for the wicked and disgusting things that you were doing. Because of that, your land has become an empty place, like a desert. Its towns are heaps of stones where nobody lives. People use its name as a curse. ²³ That happened because you have offered sacrifices to other gods. You have done many sins against the Lord. You have refused to obey him. You have not obeyed his laws, his teaching or his commands. That is why all this trouble has happened to you now.’

²⁴ Then Jeremiah said this to all the people, including the women:

‘Listen to the Lord's message, all you people of Judah who are now living in Egypt. ²⁵ The Lord God Almighty, Israel's God, says, “You and your wives have certainly done the things that you said you would do. You said, ‘We will continue to do what we have promised to do. We will make sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven. We will pour out drink offerings to her.’ So do all those things that you promised to do!”

²⁶ But listen to the Lord's message to all you people of Judah who are living in Egypt. The Lord says, “I now promise this to you, with the authority of my own name. None of you who live in Egypt will ever use my name again when you make a promise. You will not say, ‘I promise you I will do this, as surely as the Lord God lives.’ ²⁷ Listen to me! I will choose to hurt you and not to help you. War or famine will kill all the people of Judah who are living in Egypt. None of them will remain alive. ²⁸ But a few of them will escape death and return to Judah from Egypt. They will be very few people. Then all the people of Judah who came to live in Egypt will know who speaks the truth. Do I speak the truth, or do they speak the truth? I do!”

²⁹ The Lord also says, “I will show you that I will surely punish you in this place. I will tell you something that will soon happen. Then you will know that my promise to punish you will certainly become true. ³⁰ I tell you now that I will put Hophra, king of Egypt, under the power of his enemies, who want to kill him. That is the same thing that I did to King Zedekiah of Judah. I put him under the power of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who wanted to kill him.” ’

God's message to Baruch

45 Baruch wrote down on a scroll the words that Jeremiah told him to write. That happened in the fourth year that Josiah's son, Jehoiakim, ruled Judah as king. At that time, Jeremiah said to Baruch, ² ‘The Lord, Israel's God, says this to you, Baruch: ³ You said, “I have terrible trouble! I have a lot of pain, and the Lord has also made me very sad. I am so upset that I have become very weak. I cannot rest at all.” 

⁴ But the Lord says this to you, Baruch: “I will soon knock down the things that I have built. I will pull out of the ground the things that I have planted. I will do that everywhere in the land. ⁵ If you want to become famous and important, do not hope for that to happen. I will send great trouble to all the people on the earth. But I promise that I will keep your life safe, wherever you go.” That is what the Lord says.’

The Lord's messages about Egypt^[j]

46 The Lord gave the prophet Jeremiah messages about the nations.

² This is the message about Egypt.

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his army fought against the army of Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt. Babylon's army won the battle against Egypt's army at Carchemish on the Euphrates river. That happened in the fourth year that Josiah's son Jehoiakim ruled Judah as king.

⁵ The Lord says,

King Nebuchadnezzar will attack Egypt

¹³ The Lord gave this message to the prophet Jeremiah about King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He said that Nebuchadnezzar would come to attack Egypt.

¹⁸ The Lord Almighty is the great King. He says,

That is what the Lord says.

²⁵ The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, also says, ‘Now I will punish Amon, the god of Thebes city, and the other gods of Egypt. I will also punish Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and Egypt's other rulers. I will punish Egypt's people and everyone who trusts in Pharoah's power. ²⁶ I will put them under the power of King Nebuchadnezzar and his army, who want to kill them. But in later years, people will again live in Egypt, as they did before.’ That is what the Lord says.

The Israelites will live in peace

That is what the Lord says.

The Lord's message about the Philistines

47 The Lord gave this message to the prophet Jeremiah before Pharaoh and the army of Egypt attacked Gaza. The Lord said this about the Philistines: