JEREMIAH. Judah's captivity for sin

and confounded: and the residue of shall they be buried but they sha? them will I deliver to the sword before! be as dung upon the face of the their enemies, saith the LORD. earth: and they shall be consumed 10 Wo is me, my mother, that by the sword, and by famine; and thou hast born me a man of strife, their carcases shall be meat for the and a man of contention to the whole fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of earth? I have neither tent on usury, the earth. nor men have lent to me on usury: yet every one of them doth curse me. 11 The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with thy reinnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil, and in the time of affiction.

15 But, The LORD Evetb, that brought up the children of Israel 3 For thus saith the LORD concern- from the land of the north, and from ing the sons and concerning the daugh-all the lands whither he had driven ters that are born in this place, and them and I will bring them again concerning their mothers that bare into their land that I gave unto their them, and concerning their fathers that fathers. Degat them in this land;

Decelt fulness of the heart.

CHAP. XVII. The sabbath to be hallowed.

for many hunters, and they shall hunt 11 As the partridge sitteth on eggs, them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the

rocks.

17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine

eyes.

and hatcheth them not; so be that gettech riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of bis days, and at his end shall be a fool.

12 A glorious bigh throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. 13 O LORD, the bope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed. and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain

18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abomina-of living waters. ble things.

19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers bave inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.

20 Shall a man make gods unto bimself, and they are no gods?

21 Therefore bebold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD. CHAP. XVII.

THE en of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond; it is graven upon the tatle of their heart, and upon the horns) of your altars;

Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.

3 0 my mountain in the field, 1 will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.

4 And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindied a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.

5 Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the

LORD is.

14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be bealed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.

15 Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD let come now.

16 As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woful day, thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee.

17 Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil.

18 Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

19 Thus saith the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the whea they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;

20 And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:

21 Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath-day; nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;

29 Neither carry forth a burden out of your bouses on the sabbath-day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath-day, as I commanded your fathers.

23 But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.

24 And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath-day, to do no work therein;

8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out 25 Then shall there enter into the her roots by the river, and shall not gares of this city kings and princes see when heat cometh; but her leaf sitting upon the throne of David, shall be green; and shall not be care- riding in chariots and on horses, ful in the year of drought, neither shall they, and their princes, the men of cease from yielding fruit. Judah, and the inhabitant of Jeru9 The heart is deceitful above all salem and this city shall remain for things, and desperately wicked who can know it

10 I the TARD search the beart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

ever.

26 And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the

The type of the potter.

JEREMIAH. The desolation of the Jean ancient paths, to walk in paths, in s way not cast up;

south, bringing burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and meat-offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the bouse of the LORD.

27 But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath-day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day; then will i kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

CHAP. XVIII.

THE word which came to Jeremiah
from the LORD, saying,
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 on the wheels.

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

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

60 house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

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

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

18 Then said they, 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 give heed to any of his words.

19 Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.

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

21 Therefore deliver up their chil dren 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 At what instant I shall speak con-houses, when thou shalt bring a troop cerning a nation, and concerning a suddenly upon them: for they have kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull digged a pit to take me, and hid snares down, and to destroy it; for my feet.

8 If that nation, against whom I bave pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.

9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;

10 If it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.

13 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. 14 Wit a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?

15 Because my people hath forgot ten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the

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

CHAP. XIX.

THUS saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;

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

3 And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, 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 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came into my mind:

Pashur's doom.

CHAP. XX. Jeremiah compiains of contemps.

6 Therefore bebold, the days come, 4 For thus saith the LORD, Behold saith the LORD, that this place shall I will make thee a terror to thyself, To more be called Tophet, nor The and to all thy friends and they shall valley of the son of Hincom, but The fall by the sword of their enemies, and valley of slaughter. thine eyes shall behold it and I will give all Judah into the band of the king of Babylon, and be shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shali slay them with the sword.

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 them that seek their lives: and their carcases will 1 give to be meat for the fowls of the beaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

8 And I will make this city desolate, and an bissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and biss because of all the plagues thereof.

9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.

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

11 And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they sball bury them u Tophet, till there be no place to bury.

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

5 Moreover, I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and a.l the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which 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 thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied

lies.

7 O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and bast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.

8 For since I spake, 1 cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily

9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine beart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

13 And the houses of Jerusalem, 10 For I heard the defaming of and the houses of the kings of Judah, many, tear on every side. Report, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, say they, and we will report it. All because of all the bouses upon whose my familiars watched for my halting, roofs they have burned incense unto saying, Peradventure he will be enall the host of heaven, and have ticed, and we shall prevail against poured out drink-offerings unto other him, and we shall take our revenge gode. on him.

14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither 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 saith the LORD of bosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not bear my words.

CHAP. XX.

NOW Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, beard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.

Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks ibat were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.

3 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD bath not called thy name Pashur, but Magor-nsabil.

11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail they shall be greatly asbamed for they shall not prosper : their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.

12 But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the beart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my

cause.

13 Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD for be hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.

14 Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.

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

16 And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noon-iide:

17 Because he slew me not from the

The captivity foretold.

JEREMIAH. An exhortation to repentance,

,womb; or that my mother might have habitant of the valley, and rock of the been my grave, and her womb to be plain, saith the LORD; which say, Who always great with me.

18 Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame

CHAP. XXI.

THE word which canie unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiab sent unto him Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,

2 Inquire, I pray chee, of the LORD for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us, if so 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 Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah:

them,

shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our babitations?

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.

CHAP. XXII.

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, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:

3 Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and defiver the spoiled out of the hand of the Is-oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.

4 Thus saith the LORD God of rael; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your bands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city.

5 And I myself will fight against you with an out-stretched 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, 1 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 Nebuchadrezzar 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 shail die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for

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 touching the house of the king of Judah, say, Hear ye the word of the LORD;

12 O house of David, thus saith the LORD; Execate judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evit of your doings.

13 Behold, I am against thee, O

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 bear 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 Gi lead 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 wea pons: 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 neighbour, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this grea city?

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

10 Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him; but weep sore fo: him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.

11 For thus saith the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judab, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which 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 Wo unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong: that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;

14 That saith, I will build me a in-wide house and large chambers, and