Chronological

18 ¶ The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

² Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.

³ Then I went down to the potter’s house; and, behold, he wrought a work upon a wheel.

⁴ And the vessel that he made of clay was broken in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

⁵ Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

⁶ O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel.

⁷ In an instant I shall speak against Gentiles and against kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy.

⁸ But if these Gentiles shall turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.

⁹ And in an instant I shall speak concerning the nation and concerning the kingdom, to build and to plant it;

¹⁰ but if it should do evil in my sight, not hearing my voice, then I will repent of the good that I had determined to do unto them.

¹¹ ¶ Now therefore, speak to every man of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus hath the LORD said: Behold, I ordain evil against you and devise plans against you; return ye now each one from his evil way, and better your ways and your doings.

¹² And they said, This is useless, for we must walk after our own devices, and we must each one do the imagination of his evil heart.

¹³ Therefore thus hath the LORD said; Ask now among the Gentiles, who has heard such things: the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.

¹⁴ Will anyone leave the snow of the rock of the field that flows from Lebanon? or shall they forsake the singular, cold, flowing waters?

¹⁵ Because my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not trodden;

¹⁶ to make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passes thereby shall be astonished and wag his head.

¹⁷ I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their perdition.

¹⁸ ¶ Then they said, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not consider any of his words.

¹⁹ Consider me, O LORD, and hear the voice of those that contend with me.

²⁰ Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them and to turn away thy wrath from them.

²¹ Therefore deliver up their sons to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.

²² Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them; for they have dug a pit to take me and hid snares for my feet.

²³ Yet, LORD, thou dost know all their counsel against me to slay me; do not forgive their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.

19 ¶ Thus hath the LORD said, Go and buy a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the elders of the people and of the elders of the priests;

² and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry by the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee.

³ Therefore thou shalt say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus saith the LORD of the hosts, God of Israel: Behold, I bring evil upon this place, such that whoever hears of it, his ears shall tingle.

⁴ Because they have forsaken me and have estranged this place; and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;

⁵ and have built high places unto Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto this same Baal, which I did not command, nor speak, neither did it come into my mind.

⁶ Therefore, behold, the days come, said the LORD, that this place shall no longer be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of the slaughter.

⁷ And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those that seek their souls and I will give their carcasses to be food for the fowls of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth.

⁸ And I will make this city desolate and a hissing; every one that passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.

⁹ And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and each one shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, with which their enemies and those that seek their souls shall straiten them.

¹⁰ ¶ Then thou shalt break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,

¹¹ and shalt say unto them, Thus hath the LORD of the hosts said: Even so will I break this people and this city as one breaks a potter’s vessel that cannot be restored again; and they shall bury them in Tophet, for there shall be no other place to bury.

¹² Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to its inhabitants and even make this city as Tophet:

¹³ And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be as the place of Tophet, defiled, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of the heaven and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.

¹⁴ Then Jeremiah returned from Tophet, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’s house and said to all the people,

¹⁵ Thus hath the LORD of the hosts, God of Israel said: Behold, I bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have spoken against her because they have hardened their necks that they might not hear my words.

20 ¶ And Pashur the priest, the son of Immer, who presided as prince in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah who prophesied these things.

² Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were at the gate of Benjamin on the high place, which is in the house of the LORD.

³ And it came to pass on the morrow that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said unto him: The LORD has not called thy name Pashur, {Heb. Prosperity all around} but Magormissabib. {Heb. Fear from every side}

⁴ For thus hath the LORD said, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself and to all those that love thee well; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it; and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall smite them with the sword.

⁵ Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city and all its labours and all its precious things and all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, who shall spoil them and take them and carry them to Babylon.

⁶ And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity; and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die and shalt be buried there, thou and all those who love thee well, unto whom thou hast prophesied with lies.

⁷ ¶ O LORD, thou hast seduced me, and I was seduced; thou wert stronger than I and hast overcome me; I am in derision daily; every one mocks me.

⁸ For since I spoke out, I raised my voice crying, Violence and destruction; because the word of the LORD has been a reproach unto me and a derision, daily.

⁹ And I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But he was in my heart as a burning fire and within my bones; I tried to forbear, and I could not.

¹⁰ For I heard the murmuring of many, fear on every side, Report, and we will report it. All my friends watched to see if I would stumble. Peradventure he will deceive himself, they said, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

¹¹ But the LORD is with me as a powerful giant; therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper; they shall have everlasting confusion which shall never be forgotten.

¹² O LORD of the hosts, who examines that which is just, who seest the kidneys and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee I have opened my cause.

¹³ Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD; for he has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.

¹⁴ ¶ Cursed be the day in which I was born; do not let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.

¹⁵ Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.

¹⁶ And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew and did not repent; and let him hear the cry in the morning and the shouting at noontide

¹⁷ because he did not slay me in the womb, and my mother would have been my grave, and her womb perpetual conception.

¹⁸ Why did I come forth out of the womb? To see labour and sorrow that my days should be consumed with shame?

21 ¶ The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying,

² Enquire, I pray thee, of the LORD for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon makes war against us; peradventure the LORD will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, and he will go up from upon us.

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

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

⁵ And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and in fury and in great wrath.

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

⁷ And afterward, thus hath the LORD said, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his slaves and the people and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their souls; and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not forgive them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.

⁸ ¶ And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus hath the LORD said: Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.

⁹ He that abides in this city shall die by the sword or by the famine or by the pestilence, but he that goes out and falls to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his soul shall be unto him for a spoil.

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

¹¹ And to the house of the king of Judah, say, Hear ye the word of the LORD;

¹² O house of David, thus hath the LORD said: Execute judgment early and deliver him that is oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor lest my fury go forth like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it because of the evil of your doings.

¹³ Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley of the rock of the plain (saith the LORD), which say, Who shall come up against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?

¹⁴ I will visit you according to the fruit of your doings, said the LORD: and I will kindle a fire in your forest, and it shall devour all things round about it.

22 ¶ Thus hath the LORD said: Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word,

² and say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that doth sit upon the throne of David, thou, and thy slaves and thy people that enter in by these gates:

³ Thus hath the LORD said: Execute judgment and righteousness and deliver the oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor and do not deceive, neither steal from the stranger nor from the fatherless nor from the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.

⁴ For if ye effectively obey this word, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house the kings seated by David upon his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, he and his slaves and his people.

⁵ But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, said the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.

⁶ For thus hath the LORD said regarding the house of the king of Judah: Thou art Gilead unto me and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness and cities which are not inhabited.

⁷ And I will appoint destroyers against thee, each one with his weapons, and they shall cut down thy choice cedars and cast them into the fire.

⁸ And many Gentiles shall pass by this city, and each man shall say to his neighbour, Why has the LORD done thus unto this great city?

⁹ Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and worshipped other gods and served them.

¹⁰ ¶ Do not weep for the dead nor bemoan him, but weep sore for him that goes away, for he shall return no more nor see his native country.

¹¹ For thus hath the LORD said of Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, He who went forth out of this place shall not return there any more;

¹² but he shall die in the place where they have led him captive and shall see this land no more.

¹³ Woe unto him that builds his house and not in righteousness and his chambers and not in judgment, using his neighbour’s service without wages and not giving him the wages of his work!

¹⁴ That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cuts out windows in it and covers it with cedar and anoints it with vermilion.

¹⁵ Shalt thou reign, because thou dost enclose thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink and do judgment and righteousness, and then it was well with him?

¹⁶ He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him. Is this not to know me? said the LORD.

¹⁷ But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness and for to shed innocent blood and for oppression and for violence, to do it.

¹⁸ Therefore thus hath the LORD said concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! and Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!

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

²⁰ ¶ Go up to Lebanon and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan and cry unto all parts: for all thy lovers are destroyed.

²¹ I spoke unto thee in thy prosperity, but thou didst say, I will not hear. This has been thy way from thy youth, that thou hast never heard my voice.

²² The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity; surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confound thyself because of all thy malice.

²³ Thou didst inhabit Lebanon, thou didst make thy nest in the cedars. How shalt thou cry out when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!

²⁴ As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet I would pluck thee from there;

²⁵ and I will give thee into the hand of those that seek thy soul and into the hand of those whose face thou dost fear, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

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

²⁷ But to the land unto which they de sire to return, they shall not return there.

²⁸ Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? Is he a vessel in which there is no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his generation, and are cast into a land which they know not?

²⁹ O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

³⁰ Thus hath the LORD said, Write what shall be of this man deprived of a generation, a man unto whom nothing shall prosper in all the days of his life, for no man of his seed who sits upon the throne of David and rules over Judah shall prosper.