He receiveth a gracious promise. CHAP. XVI, XVII. The Jews' recompense for idolatry. 18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound 15 But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the ncurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt children of Israel from the land of the north, thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as and from all the lands whither he had driven waters that fail? them and I will bring them again into their

19 Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou land that I gave unto their fathers. return, then will I bring thee again, and thou 16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my will I send for many hunters, and they shall mouth: let them return unto thee; but return hunt them from every mountain, and from every not thou unto them. hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

20 And I will make thee unto this people a 17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they fenced brazen wall: and they shall fight against are not hid from my face, neither is their ini. thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for quity hid from mine eyes."

I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, 18 And first I will recompense their iniquity saith the LORD. and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things.

21 And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the band of the terrible.

CHAP. XVI.

Utter ruin of the Jews foreshewn. THE word of the LORD caine also unto me,

saying,

2 Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons nor daughters in this place.

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 have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. 20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?

3 For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in 21 Therefore behold, I will this once cause them this place, and concerning their mothers that to know, I will cause them to know my hand bare them, and concerning their fathers that and my might; and they shall know that my begat them in this land: name is The LORD.

CHAP. XVII.
Captivity of Judah for sin.

4 They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried;! but they shall be as dung upon the face of the THE sin of Judah is written with a pen of earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, iron, and with the point of a diamond: it and by famine; and their carcasses shall be meat is graven upon the table of their heart, and upfor the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the on the horns of your altars; earth. 2 Whilst their children remember their altars

5 For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the and their groves by the green trees upon the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor high hills.

bemoan them: för I have taken away my peace 3 0 my mountain in the field, I will give thy from this people, saith the LORD, even loving- substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and kindness and mercies. thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.

6 Both the great and the small shall die in this 4 And thou, even thyself, shalt disconunue land: they shall not be buried, neither shall from thy heritage that I gave thee; and I will men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land make themselves bald for them: which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a

7 Neither shall men tear themselves for them in fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever. mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither 5 Thus saith the LORD: Cursed be the man shall men give them the cup of consolation to that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, drink for their father or for their mother. and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

8 Thou shalt not also go into the house of feast- 6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, ing, to sit with them to eat and to drink. and shall not see when good cometh; but shall 9 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this in a salt land and not inhabited.

place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice 7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of and whose hope the LORD is. the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the wa

10 ¶ And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt ters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the shew this people all these words, and they shall river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pro- her leaf shall be green; and shall not be carenounced all this great evil against us? or what ful in the year of drought, neither shall cease is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have from yielding fruit. committed against the LORD our God?

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and

11 Then shalt thou say unto them, Because desperately wicked: who can know it? your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, 10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, and have walked after other gods, and have even to give every man according to his ways, serve them, and have worshipped them, and and according to the fruit of his doings. have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; 11 As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatch12 And ye have done worse than your fathers; eth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagi- by right, shall leave them in the midst of his nation of his evil heart, that they may not hear- days, and at his end shall be a fool. 12 A glorious high throne from the beginning

ken unto me: 13 Therefore will I cast you out of this land is the place of our sanctuary. into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor 13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart day and night; where I will not shew you favour. from me shall be written in the earth, because 14 Therefore behold, the days coine, saith they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The living waters. LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

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

The Jews' desolation foretold.

CHAP. XX, XXI.

Jeremiah's complaint

5 They have built also the high places of Baal, come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and to burn their sons with fire for burnt-offerings shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake to whom thou hast prophesied lies. it, neither came it into my mind: 71 OLOR, thou hast deceived me, and I was 6 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast LORD, that this place shall no more be called prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, inocketh me.

but The valley of Slaughter.

8 For since I spake, feried out, I cried violence

7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and spoil; because the word of the LORD was and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily. them to fall by the sword before their enemies, 9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: nor speak any more in his name. But his word and their carcasses will I give to be meat for the was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I and for th earth. could not stay.

8 And 1 will make this city desolate, and a 10 1 For I heard the defaming of many, fear hissing: every one that passeth thereby shall on every side. Report, say they, and we will rebe astonished and hiss because of all the plagues port it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

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 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 ashamed; 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 heart, let ine see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have

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 I opened my cause.
shall bury them in 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:

13 Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evil-doers.

14 T 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 man-child is born unto thee; making him very glad.

13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink-16 And let that man be as the cities which the offerings unto other gods. LORD Overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at

14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he noon-tide; stood in the court of the LORD's house; and said to all the people,

15 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, 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 hear my words. CHAP. XX.

Pashur's new name and doom.
Immer

17 Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with mc. 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 siege of Jerusalem foretold.
HE word which came unto Jeremiah from

Zedekian sent

NOW Pashur the son of Inor in the Priest him Pashur the son of Melchian, anst Zepha

of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied niah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying, these things. 2 Inquire, I pray thee, of the LORD for us; for

2 Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon maketh war and put him in the stocks that were in the high against us; if so be that the LORD will dea! gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of with us according to all his wondrous works, the LORD. that he may go up from us.

3 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pa- 3 1 Then said Jeremiah unto them, Thus shall shur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. ye say to Zedekiah:

Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD hath 4 Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Behold, not called thy name Pashur, but Magor-missabib. I will turn back the weapons of war that are 4 For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and which besiege you without the walls, and I wil thine eyes shall behold it: and I will give all assemble them into the midst of this city. Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and 5 And I myself will fight against you with an he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and out-stretched hand and with a strong arm, even shall slay them with the sword. in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.

5 Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this 6 And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, city, and all the labours thereof, and all the pre- both man and beast: they shall die of a great cious things thereof, and all the treasures of the pestilence.

kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their 7 And afterward, saith the LORD, I will deliver enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and and carry them to Babylon. the people, and such as are left in this city from

6 And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thy the pestilence, from the sword, and from the house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king

415.

Jeremiah upbraideth the king's house.

JEREMIAH.

The judgment of Coniah, &c. of Babylon. and into the hand of their enemies, led him captive, and shall see this land no more. and into the hand of those that seek their life: 13 Wo unto him that buildeth his house by and he shall smnite them with the edge of the unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; sword; he shall not spare them, neither have that useth his neighbour's service without wages pity, nor have mercy. and giveth him not for his work;

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.

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

9 He that abideth in this city shall die by the with vermilion. sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: 15 Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thybut he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chal-self in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, deans that besiege you, he shall live, and his and do judgment and justice, and then it was life shall be unto him for a prey. well with him?

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.

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 thy heart are not but for 11 And touching the house of the king of Ju- thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, dah, say, Hear ye the word of the LORD; and for oppression, and for violence, to do it. 12 O house of David, thus saith the LORD; Ex- 18 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning ecute judgment in the morning, and deliver him Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppres- They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my sor, lest my fury go out like fire, and burn that brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament none can quench it, because of the evil of your for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! doings. 19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, 13 Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jeruthe valley, and rock of the plain, saith the LORD; salem. which 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.

CHAP. XXII.

20 1 Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed. 21 I spake 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.

Jeremiah exhorteth to righteousness. 22 The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and THUS saith the LORD; Go down to the house thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then of the king of Judah, and speak there this shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all word, thy wickedness.

2 And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king 23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be thou, and thy servants, and thy people that en-when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woter in by these gates: man in travail !

3 Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment 24 As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, thee thence; nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.

25 And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them 4 For 'ye do this thing indeed, then shall there whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and hand of the Chaldeans. on horses, he, and his servants, and his people. 26 And I will cast thee out, and thy mother 5 But if ye will not hear these words, I swear that bare thee, into another country, where ye by myself, saith the LORD, that this house shall were not born; and there shall ye die. become a desolation. 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? wherefore 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.

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 theminto 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 great city?

30 Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man 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

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

CHAP. XXIII.

Christ, the Branch, promised.

O be unto the pastors that destroy and scat

10 11 Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan W ter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.

him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native 2 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel country. against the pastors that feed my people; Ye 11 For thus saith the LORD touching Shallum have scattered my flock, and driven them away, the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned and have not visited them: behold, I will visit instead of Josiah his father, which went forth upon you the evil of your doings, saith the out of this place; He shall not return thither LORD. 3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock 12 But he shall die in the place whither they have out of all countries whither I have driven

any more:

Against false prophets, and

mockers of the true prophets 23 Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?

CHAP. XXIV. 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, which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD.

24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not 1 fill beaven and earth? saith the LORD. 25 I have heard what the prophets said, that 5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamwill raise unto David a righteous Branch, and A King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

ed, I have dreamed.

26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are pro6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel phets of the deceit of their own heart; shall dwell safely: and this is his name where- 27 Which think to cause my people to forget by he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHT- my name by their dreams which they tell every EOUSNESS. man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.

7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel ont of the land of Egypt;

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.

8 But, the LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of 29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the the north country, and from all countries whither LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their rock in pieces? own land. 9 My 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.

30 Therefore behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.

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 10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because false dreanis, saith the LORD, and do tell them, of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant and cause my people to err by their lies, and by places of the wilderness are dried up, and their their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor comcourse is evil, and their force is not right. manded them: therefore they shall not profit

11 For both prophet and priest are profane; this people at all, saith the LORD. yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, 33 And when this people, or the prophet, of saith the LORD. 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.

12 Wherefore 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.

34 And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that 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 neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath the LORD

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?

14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and spoken? walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of 36 And the burden of the LORD shall ye menevil-doers, that none doth return from his wick-tion no more: for every man's word shall be his edness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, burden; for ye have perverted the words of the 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.

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 17 They say still unto them that despise me, The I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say of my presence: unto every one that walketh after the imagination 40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall 18 For who hath stood in the counsel of the not be forgotten. LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?

forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it THE

CHAP. XXIV.

The type of good and bad figs.

19 Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone THE LORD shewed me, and behold, two bas kets of figs were set before the temple of shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of 20 The anger of the LORD shall not return, Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the until he have executed, and till he have per- son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes formed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, days ye shall consider it perfectly. from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Ba

21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran; bylon.

I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. 2 One basket had very good figs, even like the 22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had had caused my people to hear my words, then very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they should have turned them from their evil they were so bad. way, and from the evil of their doings 3 Then said the LORD unto me, What seest