 1 The Word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 2 For then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem. Jeremiah the prophet was shut in the court of the guard in the house of the king of Judah. 3 For King Zedekiah of Judah had shut him up saying, Why do you prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it, 4 King Zedekiah of Judah will not escape from the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes, 5 and he shall lead Zedekiah into Babylon, and there he shall be until I visit him, says the Lord. Though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not be blessed. 6 Jeremiah said, The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 7 Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum your uncle shall come to you saying, Buy for yourself my field in Anathoth. For the right to redeem it is yours, to buy it. 8 So Hanameel my uncle's son came to me in the court of the prison according to the Word of the Lord and said to me, Please buy my field in Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin. For the right of inheritance is yours, and the right to redeem is yours. Buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the Word of the Lord. 9 I bought the field in Anathoth, of Hanameel my uncle's son, and weighed him the silver, seventeen shekels of silver. 10 I wrote it in the document, and sealed it, and called witnesses, and weighed the silver in the scales. 11 So I took the document of the purchase, what was sealed according to the law and custom, and the open copy. 12 I gave the document of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, before the eyes of Hanameel my uncle's son, and before the eyes of the witnesses who wrote in the purchase document, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the guard. 13 I commanded Baruch before them saying, 14 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these books, the purchase document, the one sealed and the open book, and put them in an earthen vessel so that they may stand many days. 15 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall be owned again in this land. 16 After I gave the purchase document to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord saying, 17 Lord God, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and stretched out arm. Nothing is too great for you. 18 You show lovingkindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them. The great, the mighty God, the Lord of hosts, is His name, 19 great in wisdom and mighty in work. For your eyes are open on all the ways of the sons of men, to give every one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. 20 For you have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, until this day, and in Israel, and among men. And have made you a name, as at this day; 21 and have brought forth your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with great terror. 22 You have given them this land, which you swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. 23 They came in and possessed it, but they did not obey your voice, nor did they walk in your law. They have done nothing of all that you commanded them to do. Therefore you have caused all this evil to come on them. 24 Behold, the siege mounds have come to the city to take it. And the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the plague. And what you have spoken has happened. And, behold, you saw it. 25 You have said to me, O Lord God, buy the field for money and take witnesses. For the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans. 26 Then the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah saying, 27 Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? 28 Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and he shall take it. 29 The Chaldeans who fight against this city will come up and set this city on fire and burn it with the houses on whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal and poured out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. 30 The children of Israel and the children of Judah have done evil before me from their youth. The children of Israel have provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, says the Lord. 31 This city has been a cause of my anger and fury from the day that they built it even to this day so that I should remove it from before me. 32 Because of all the evil by the children of Israel and of the children of Judah that they have done to provoke me to anger, their kings, their rulers, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 33 They have turned the back to me and not their face. Though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction. 34 But they set their abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. 35 They built the high places of Baal, in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech. Which I did not command them, nor did it come into my mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. 36 Now therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the plague: 37 Behold, I will gather them out of all the lands where I have driven them in my anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath. And I will bring them again to this place, and I will cause them to live safely. 38 They shall be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their good and for the good of their children after them. 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good. But I will put my fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from me. 41 Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will truly plant them in this land with all my heart and all my whole soul. 42 For thus says the Lord: As I have brought all this great evil on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them. 43 Fields shall be bought in this land of which you say, It is a desert without man or beast. It is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. 44 Men shall buy fields for silver, and write it in a book, and seal it, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south. For I will cause their captivity to return, says the Lord.
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