Thus says Jehovah, Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak this word there,

And say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people, who enter through these gates:

Thus says Jehovah, Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver him who has been robbed from the hand of the oppressor, and do no wrong, do no violence, to the sojourner, the orphan, or the widow; nor shed innocent blood in this place.

For if you indeed do this thing, then kings sitting in David's place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses —  ¹the king and his servants and his people will come through the gates of this house;

But if you do not listen to these things, I swear by Myself, declares Jehovah, that this house will become a ruin.

For thus says Jehovah concerning the house of the king of Judah,
You are Gilead to Me,
The summit of Lebanon;
Yet I will surely make you a wilderness,
Cities that are not inhabited.

And I will set apart destroyers against you,
Each with his weapons;
And they will cut down your choice cedars
And cast them into the fire.

And many nations will pass by this city, and they will say each one to his neighbor, Why has Jehovah done this to this great city?

And they will say, It is because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.

Do not weep for the one who died, nor lament for him;
But weep bitterly for the one who goes away,
For he will no longer return and see
The land of his birth.

For thus says Jehovah concerning  ¹Shallum the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who became king in the place of Josiah his father, who went away from this place: He will not return there anymore;

But in the place where they have exiled him he will die and never see this land again.

Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness
And his upper rooms by injustice,
Who uses his neighbor's service without wages
And does not give him recompense for his work,

Who says, I will build myself a large house
With spacious upper chambers,
And cuts out for it windows; and it is paneled with cedar
And painted with vermilion.

Are you a king because you
Excel in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink,
And execute judgment and righteousness? Thus it was well with him.

He judged the cause of the poor and needy; thus it was well.
Is not this to know Me?
Declares Jehovah.

But you have eyes and a heart
Only for your unjust gain
And for shedding innocent blood
And for oppression and doing violence.

Therefore thus says Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah,
They will not wail for him, saying,
Alas, my brother! or, Alas, sister!
They will not wail for him, saying,
Alas, lord! or, Alas, his majesty!

He will be buried with the burial of a donkey —
Dragged and cast out
Beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

Go up to Lebanon and cry out;
And lift up your voice in Bashan,
And cry out from Abarim,
For all your lovers have been shattered.

I spoke to you in your prosperity;
But you said, I will not listen.
This has been your way from your youth,
That you have not listened to My voice.

The wind will shepherd all your shepherds,
And your lovers will go into captivity;
Then you will be ashamed and confounded
Because of all your wickedness.

O inhabitant of Lebanon,
Nested among the cedars,
How you will be pitied when pains come to you,
Anguish like that of a woman giving birth.

As I live, declares Jehovah, Even though  ¹Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a signet ring on My right hand, yet I would tear you off,

And I would give you into the hand of those who seek your life and into the hand of those whom you fear, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

I will cast you and your mother who bore you far away into another land where you were not born, and there you will die.

But to the land to which they desire to return, they will not return.

Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered container?
Or is he a vessel no one delights in?
Why are he and his seed thrown away
And cast into a land which they do not know?

O land, land, land,
Hear the word of Jehovah:

Thus says Jehovah,
Write down this man as childless,
A man who will not prosper in his days;
For none of his  ¹seed will prosper
By sitting on the throne of David
Or by ruling again in Judah.

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture, declares Jehovah.

Therefore thus says Jehovah the God of Israel concerning the shepherds who shepherd My people, You have scattered My flock and driven them away and have not visited them; I will visit upon you the evil of your deeds, declares Jehovah.

Then I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their pasture; and they will be fruitful and multiply.

And I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they will no longer fear or be dismayed, nor will any be missing, declares Jehovah.

Indeed, days are coming,
Declares Jehovah,
When I will raise up to David a righteous  ¹Shoot;
And He will reign as  ²King and act prudently
And will execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell securely;
And this is His name by which He will be called,
 ¹Jehovah  ²our  ³righteousness.

Therefore indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when they will no longer say, As Jehovah lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

But, As Jehovah lives, who brought up and led back the seed of the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where I had driven them, that they might dwell in their own land.

Concerning the prophets:
My heart is broken within me;
All my bones fail.
I have become like a man who is drunk,
Even like a mighty man who is overcome by wine,
Because of Jehovah
And because of the words of His holiness.

For the land is full of adulterers;
For the land mourns because of the curse.
The pastures of the wilderness are dried up,
And the course they run is evil,
And their might is not right.

For both the prophet and the priest are profane;
Even in My house I have found their wickedness,
Declares Jehovah.

Therefore their way will become like slippery paths for them;
In the darkness they will be driven and will fall in it;
For I will bring evil on them
In the year of their punishment, declares Jehovah.

And in the prophets of Samaria
I have seen an offensive thing:
They prophesied by Baal
And led My people Israel astray.

And yet in the prophets of Jerusalem
I have seen a horrible thing:
The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood;
And they strengthen the hands of evildoers,
So that none turn
From their wickedness.
All of them have become to Me like Sodom
And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

Therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts concerning the prophets:
I will feed them with wormwood
And give them poisonous water to drink,
For profaneness has gone forth
From the prophets of Jerusalem into all the land.

Thus says Jehovah of hosts,
Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you;
They are leading you to  ¹vanity;
They speak a vision of their own heart,
Not out of the mouth of Jehovah.

They say continually to those who despise Me,
Jehovah has spoken, You will have peace;
And to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart,
They say, Evil will not come upon you.

For who has stood in the  ¹council of Jehovah,
That he should perceive and hear His word?
Who has given heed to His word and listened?

Look, the storm wind of Jehovah! Wrath has gone forth,
Even a whirling tempest;
It will whirl down on the head of the wicked.

The anger of Jehovah will not turn back
Until He has executed and until He has accomplished
The purposes of His heart;
In the last days
You will understand it clearly.

I did not send the prophets,
But they ran forth;
I did not speak to them,
Yet they prophesied.

But if they had stood in My council
And had caused My people to hear My words,
They would have turned them from their evil way
And from the evil of their deeds.

Am I a God who is near, declares Jehovah,
And not a God who is far off?

Can a man hide himself in secret places,
So that I will not see him? declares Jehovah.
Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?
Declares Jehovah.

I have heard what the prophets say, who prophesy falsehood in My name, saying, I have dreamed; I have dreamed.

How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy falsehood and who are prophets of the deceit of their own heart,

Who think to cause My people to forget My name with their dreams which they tell, each one to his neighbor, even as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?

The prophet who has a dream, let him tell the dream; and he with whom is My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the  ¹straw to the  ¹grain? declares Jehovah.

Is not My word thus — like  ¹fire, declares Jehovah, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

Therefore indeed, I am against the prophets, declares Jehovah, who  ¹steal My words, each one from his neighbor.

Indeed, I am against the prophets, declares Jehovah, who use their tongues and declare, He has declared.

Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams, declares Jehovah, and who tell them and lead My people astray by their lies and by their recklessness, although I did not send them or command them; neither do they profit this people at all, declares Jehovah.

And when this people or the prophet or priest asks you, saying, What is the burden of Jehovah? then you shall say to them, What burden? I will even cast you off, declares Jehovah.

And as for the prophet and the priest and the people who say, The burden of Jehovah, I will punish that man and his household.

Thus you shall say every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, What has Jehovah answered? or, What has Jehovah spoken?

And you shall mention no more the burden of Jehovah, for every man's word will be his own burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, Jehovah of hosts, our God.

Thus you shall say to the prophet, What has Jehovah answered you? or, What has Jehovah spoken?

But if you say, The burden of Jehovah, therefore thus says Jehovah, Because you have said this word, The burden of Jehovah, and I have sent to you, saying, You shall not say, The burden of Jehovah,

Therefore, I will utterly forget you and cast away from My presence you and the city which I gave to you and to your fathers.

And I will bring upon you eternal reproach and eternal humiliation, which will not be forgotten.

Jehovah showed me, and there were two baskets of  ¹figs placed before the temple of Jehovah, after Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon had exiled Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, and the princes of Judah and the craftsmen and the smiths from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon.

One basket had very good figs, like first ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten because of their rottenness.

And Jehovah said to me, What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs. The good figs are very good; the bad figs are very bad, which cannot be eaten because of their rottenness.

Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Like these good figs, so I will regard those who are exiled of Judah, whom I have sent from this place to the land of the Chaldeans, for good.

And I will set My eyes upon them for good and will bring them back to this land and build them up and not tear them down, and I will plant them and not uproot them.

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

And like the bad figs that cannot be eaten because of their rottenness, thus says Jehovah, so I will make Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his princes and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and  ¹those who dwell in the land of Egypt —

I will even make them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth for evil, to be a reproach and a  ¹proverb and a  ¹byword and a curse in all the places where I will drive them.

And I will send sword and famine and pestilence upon them until they are consumed from the land which I gave to them and to their fathers.