21 The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent unto him Pashhur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,

² “Inquire, I pray thee, of the Lord for us (for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us), if so it be that the Lord will deal with us according to all His wondrous works, that he may go up from us.”

³ Then said Jeremiah unto them, “Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah,

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

⁵ And I Myself will fight against you with 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, saith the Lord, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants and the people and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life. And he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity nor have mercy.’

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

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

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 concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, ‘Hear ye the word of the Lord,

¹² O house of David. Thus saith the Lord: “‘Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is despoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest My fury go out like fire and burn, that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

¹³ Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley and rock of the plain, saith the Lord, who say, “Who shall come down against us? Or who shall enter into our habitations?”

¹⁴ But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the Lord; and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall devour all things round about it.’”

22 Thus saith the Lord: “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, who sittest upon the throne of David, thou and thy servants and thy people who enter in by these gates.

³ Thus saith the Lord: Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the despoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, and do no wrong. Do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.

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

⁵ But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by Myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.’”

⁶ For thus saith the Lord unto the king’s house 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 prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons; and they shall cut down thy choice cedars and cast them into the fire.

⁸ “And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, ‘Why hath 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 worshiped other gods and served them.’”

¹⁰ Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him, but weep sore for him that goeth away; for he shall return no more, or see his native country.

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

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

¹³ “Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by wrong, that useth his neighbor’s service without wages, and giveth him nought for his work,

¹⁴ that saith, ‘I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows, and it is ceiled with cedar and painted with vermilion.’

¹⁵ Shalt thou reign because thou enclosest thyself in cedar? Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?

¹⁶ He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him. Was not this to know Me?” saith the Lord.

¹⁷ “But thine eyes and thine heart are for nothing but thy covetousness and to shed innocent blood, and for oppression and for violence.”

¹⁸ Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “They shall not lament for him, saying, ‘Ah, my brother!’ or, ‘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 from the Abarim; for all thy lovers are destroyed.

²¹ I spoke unto thee in thy prosperity, but thou saidst, ‘I will not hear.’ This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not 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 confounded for all thy wickedness.

²³ O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be 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 would I pluck thee thence;

²⁵ and I will give thee into the hand of those who seek thy life, and into the hand of those whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

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

²⁷ But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return.”

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

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

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

23 “Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” saith the Lord.

² Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed My people: “Ye have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings,” saith the Lord.

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

⁴ And I will set up shepherds over them who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking,” saith the Lord.

⁵ “Behold, the days come,” saith the Lord, “that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch; and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

⁶ In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is His name whereby He shall be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.

⁷ “Therefore, behold, the days come,” saith the Lord, “that they shall no more say, ‘The Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’

⁸ but, ‘the Lord liveth who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell in their own land.”

⁹ Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake. I am like a drunken man and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the Lord and because of the words of His holiness.

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

¹¹ “For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in My house have I found their wickedness,” saith the Lord.

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

¹³ “And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: They prophesied in Baal and caused My people Israel to err.

¹⁴ I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness. They are all of them unto Me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.”

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

¹⁶ Thus saith the Lord of hosts: “Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you. They make you vain; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.

¹⁷ They say still unto them that despise Me, ‘The Lord hath said, “Ye shall have peace.”’ And they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’”

¹⁸ For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived and heard His word? Who hath marked His word and heard it?

¹⁹ Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind; it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.

²⁰ The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.

²¹ “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

²² But if they had stood in My counsel and had caused My people to hear My words, then they should have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.

²³ “Am I a God at hand,” saith the Lord, “and not a God afar off?

²⁴ Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him?” saith the Lord. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” saith the Lord.

²⁵ “I have heard what the prophets said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed.’

²⁶ How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart,

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

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

²⁹ “Is not My word like as a fire?” saith the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

³⁰ “Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” saith the Lord, “that steal My words every one from his neighbor.

³¹ Behold, I am against the prophets,” saith the Lord, “that use their tongues and say, ‘He saith.’

³² Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams,” saith the Lord, “and do tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them. Therefore they shall not profit this people at all,” saith the Lord.

³³ “And when this people or the prophet or a priest shall ask thee, saying, ‘What is the burden of the Lord?’ thou shalt then say unto them, ‘What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the Lord.’

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

³⁵ Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, ‘What hath the Lord answered?’ and, ‘What hath the Lord spoken?’

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

³⁷ Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, ‘What hath the Lord answered thee?’ and, ‘What hath the Lord spoken?’

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

³⁹ therefore behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of My presence.

⁴⁰ And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame which shall not be forgotten.”

24 The Lord showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon.

² One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten they were so bad.

³ Then said the Lord unto me, “What seest thou, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs: the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten they are so evil.”

⁴ Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

⁵ “Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.

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

⁷ And I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God; for they shall return unto Me with their whole heart.

⁸ “‘And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten they are so evil’” — surely thus saith the Lord — “‘so will I deem Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt.

⁹ And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all places whither I shall drive them.

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