¶ These words spake the LORD unto Ieremy, in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Iudah, which was the eighteenth year of Nabuchodonosor,
what time as the king of Babylon's Host laid siege unto Ierusalem. But Ieremy the prophet lay bound in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Iudah's house:
where Zedekiah the king of Iudah caused him to be laid, because he had prophesied of this manner: Thus sayeth the LORD: Behold, I will deliver this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, which shall take it.
As for Zedekiah the king of Iudah, he shall not be able to escape the Caldees, but surely he shall come into the hands of the king of Babylon: which shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and one of them shall look another in the face.
And Zedekiah shall be carried unto Babylon, and there shall he be, until the time that I visit him, sayeth the LORD. But if thou takest in hand to fight against the Caldees, thou shalt not prosper.
And Ieremy said: Thus hath the LORD spoken unto me:
Behold, Hananeel the son of Selum thine Uncle's son shall come unto thee, and require thee to redeem the land, that lieth in Anathoth unto thyself: for by reason of kindred it is thy part to redeem it, and to buy it out.
And so Hananeel mine uncle's son came to me in the court of the prison (according to the word of the LORD) and said unto me: Buy my land (I pray thee) that lieth in Anathoth in the country of Ben Iamin: for by heritage thou hast right to loose it out for thyself, therefore redeem it. Then I perceived, that this was the commandment of the LORD,
and so I loosed the land from Hananeel of Anathoth, mine Uncle's son, and weighed him there the money: even seven sicles, and ten silver pens.
I cause him also to make me a writing, and to seal it, and called record thereby, and weighed him there the money upon the weights.
So I took the evidence with the copy (when it was orderly sealed and read over)
and I gave the evidence unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hananeel my cousin, and in the presence of the witnesses, that be named in the evidence, and before all the Iews that were thereby in the court of the prison.
I charged Baruch also before them, saying:
The LORD of Hosts the God of Israel commandeth thee, to take this sealed evidence with the copy, and to lay it in an earthen vessel, that it may long continue.
For the LORD of Hosts of the God of Israel hath determined, that houses, fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.
¶ Now when I had delivered the evidence unto Baruch the son of Neriah, I besought the LORD, saying:
O Lord GOD, It is thou that hast made heaven and earth with thy great power and high arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee.
Thou shewest mercy upon thousands, thou recompensest the wickedness of the fathers, into the bosom of the children that come after them. Thou art the great and mighty God, whose name is the LORD of Hosts:
great in counsel, and infinite in thought: Thine eyes look upon all the ways of men's children, to reward every one after his way, and according to the fruits of his inventions:
Thou hast done great tokens and wonders in the land of Egypt, (as we see this day) upon the people of Israel and upon those men: to make thy name great, as it is come to pass this day:
Thou hast brought thy people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, with tokens, with wonders, with a mighty hand, with a stretched out arm and with great terribleness:
and hast given them this land, like as thou hadst promised unto their fathers: Namely, that thou wouldest give them a land, that floweth with milk and honey.
Now when they came therein, and possessed it, they followed not thy voice, and walked not in thy law: but all that thou commandedst them to do, that have they not done, and therefore come all these plagues upon them.
Behold, there are bulwarks made now against the city, to take it: and it shall be won of the Caldees that besiege it, with sword, with hunger and death, and look what thou hast spoken, that same shall come upon them. For lo, all things are present unto thee:
Yet sayest thou unto me (O Lord GOD) and commandest me, that I shall loose a piece of land unto myself, and take witness thereto: and yet in the mean season the city is delivered in to the power of the Caldees.
¶ Then came the word of the LORD unto me, saying:
Behold, I am the LORD God of all flesh, is there any thing then too hard for me?
Therefore thus said the LORD: behold, I shall deliver this city into the power of the Caldees, and into the power of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon, they shall take it in:
For the Caldees shall come, and win this city, and set fire upon it, and burn it: with the gorgeous houses, in whose parlors they have made sacrifice unto Baal, and poured drink offerings unto strange gods, to provoke me unto wrath.
For seeing the children of Israel, and the children of Iudah have wrought wickedness before me ever from their youth up, what have they else done, but provoked me with the works of their own hands? sayeth the LORD.
Or, what hath this city been else, but a provoking of my wrath, ever since the day that I builded it, unto this hour? Wherein I cast it out of my sight,
because of the great blasphemies of the children of Israel and Iudah, which they have done to provoke me: yea they, their kings, their princes, their Priests, their Prophets, whole Iudah, and all the citizens of Ierusalem.
When I stood up early, and taught them and instruct them, they turned their backs to me, and not their faces.
They would not hear, to be reformed and correct. They have set their gods in the house, that is hallowed unto my name, to defile it.
They have builded high places for Baal in the valley of the children of Hennom, to vow their sons and daughters unto Molech: which I never commanded them, neither came it ever in my thought, to make Iudah sin with such abomination.
Moreover thus hath the LORD God of Israel spoken, concerning this city, which (as ye yourselves confess) shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, when it is won with the sword, with hunger and with pestilence.
Behold, I will gather them together from all lands, wherein I have scattered them in my wrath, in my fearful and great displeasure: and will bring them again unto this place, where they shall dwell safely.
And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me all the days of their life, that they and their children after them may prosper.
And I will set up an everlasting covenant with them; Namely: that I will never cease to do them good, and that I will put my fear in their hearts, so that they shall not run away from me.
Yea I will have a lust and pleasure to do them good, and faithfully to plant them in this land, with my whole heart, and with all my soul.
For thus sayeth the LORD: Like as I have brought all this great plague upon this people: so will I also bring upon them all the good, that I have promised them.
And men shall have their possessions in this land, whereof ye say now, that it shall neither be inhabited of people nor of cattle, but be delivered into the hands of the Caldees.
Yea land shall be bought for money, and evidences made there upon and sealed before witnesses in the country of Ben Iamin, and round about Ierusalem: in the cities of Iudah, in the cities that are upon the mountains, and in them that lie beneath, yea and in the cities that are in the desert. For I will bring their prisoners hither again, sayeth the LORD.
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.