1 The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh,
in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah,
which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.
2 And then the army of the king of Babylon
beseiged upon Jersulem.
Now Jeremiah the prophet
was shut up in the prison tower,
which was in the house of the king of Judah.
3 For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up,
saying,
"Why to you prophesy and say,"
"Thus says Yahweh,
'Behold, I am giving this city
into the hand of the king of Babylon,
and he will take it.'"
4 "'And Zedekiah king of Judah
will not be delivered from the hand of the Chaldeans,
for he will surely be given into the hand
of the king of Babylon.
And you will speak mouth to mouth,
and eye to eye you shall see him.
And to Babylon will Zedekiah be led,
and there you will be until I visit him.'
declares Yahweh."
6 "Though you fight with the Chaldeans
you will not prevail."
7 Then Jeremiah said,
The word of the Lord came to me, saying,
"Behold, Hanameyl son of Shallum, your uncle,
will come to you, saying,
'Buy for yourself the field
which is in Anatoth,
for it is your right of redemption to buy it.'"
8 So Hanameyl the son of my uncle came,
according to the word of Yahweh,
to the tower prison, and said to me,
"Buy now the field which is in Anatoth,
which is in the land of Benjamin,
for the right of inheritance is yours,
and the redemption is yours.
Purchase it for yourself."
Then I knew it was the word of Yahweh.
9 So I bought the field from Hanameyl,
the son of my uncle,
which is in Anatoth,
and weighed for him the silver,
seventeen shekels of silver.
10 Then I wrote a bill and sealed it,
and recorded a witness,
and weighed the silver on the scales.
11 Then I took the bill of sale,
which was sealed by command and by statute,
and the redemption.
12 And I gave the bill of sale
to Baruk son of Neriah, son of Machsiah,
in the eyes of Hanameyl my uncle,
and in the eyes of the witness
who sealed the bill of sale,
and in the eyes of all the Judeans,
who sat in the prison tower.
13 Then I charged Baruk in their eyes,
saying,
14 "Thus says Yahweh of Hosts,
the God of Israel,
'Take these bills,
this bill of sale,
and the one that is sealed,
and this bill of redemption,
and put them in a clay vessel,
so that they will remain for a long time.'"
14 "For thus says Yahweh of Hosts,
the God of Israel,
'Again will be purchased houses and fields
and vineyards in this land.'"
16 Then I prayed to Yahweh,
after I had given the bill of sale
to Baruch son of Neria, saying,
The Prayer of Jeremiah
17 "Ah Lord Yahweh!
Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth
by your great power,
and outstretched arm.
Nothing is too difficult for you.
18 You show loving-kindness to thousands,
and repay the iniquity of the forefathers
into the laps of their children behind them.
The Great and Mighty God,
Yahweh of Hosts is his name.
19 Great in council and abundant in works,
for your eyes are open to all the ways
of the sons of men,
to give to each one according
to the fruit of their deeds.
20 For you set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,
until this very day,
and in Israel and among mankind.
And you made a name for yourself
until this very day.
21 And you brought your people Israel
from the land of Egypt,
by signs and wonders,
and by a strong hand,
and by an outstretched arm,
and by great terror.
22 And you gave them this land,
which you promised to give to their forefathers,
a land flowing with milk and honey.
23 And they came in and possessed it.
But they did not obey your voice or your law.
They did not do
all which you commanded them to do.
So you caused all this evil to fall on them.
24 "Behold, the seige ramps
have come upon the city to take it.
And the city has been given
into the hands of the Chaldeans,
who make war against it,
by the sword, and the famine, and the plague."
And what you have said has happend,
and you have seen to it.
25 But now you have said to me,
O Lord God,
"Buy for yourself the field with silver,
and record a witness.
But the city has been given
into the hands of the Chaldeans."
26 And the word of Yahweh
came to Jeremiah, saying,
27 "Behold, I am Yahweh,
the God of all flesh,
is anything too difficult for me?"
28 "Therefore I am giving this city
into the hands of the Chaldeans,
and into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar
the king of Babylon,
and he will take it.
29 And the Chaldeans will come,
making war against this city,
and will set this city on fire and burn it,
and the houses where upon the rooftops
they offered incense to Baal,
and poured out drink offerings to other gods,
to provoke me to anger."
30 "For the children of Israel
and the children of Judah
have only been doing evil in my eyes
since their youth.
For the children of Israel
have only provoked me to anger
with the works of their hands,"
declares Yahweh.
31 "For this city has been
a cause of my anger
and a cause of my fury
from the day that they built it
to this very day,
that I should remove it from before my face,
32 because of all the evil which
the children of Israel
and the children of Judah have done
to provoke me to anger.--
them, their kings, their priests, and their fathers,
and the men of Judah,
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem."
33 "And they have turned the back to me,
and not the face.
And I taught them, rising up early.
And I taught them,
but they did not keep receiving instruction.
34 But they set their abominations in the house
where my name is called upon,
to defile it."
35 "And they built the high places of Baal,
which are in the valley of Ben Hinnom,
to pass over their sons and their daughters
to Molek,
which I did not command them,
and neither did it come to my mind,
to do this abomination,
so as to cause Judah to sin."
Persian Restoration
36 "But now, therefore,
thus says Yahweh the God of Israel
to this city,
of which you say,
'It has been given into the hand
of the king of Babylon,
by sword, and by famine, and by plague.'"
37 "Behold, I will gather them from all the lands
to which I have driven them,
In my anger, and my fury, and my great wrath.
And I will settle them in this place,
and I will cause them to dwell in safety.
38 And they will be my people,
and I will be their God."
39 "And I will give them one heart,
and one way,
to fear me all their days,
for their own sake,
and for the sake of their children after them.
40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them,
that I will not turn away from doing good to them.
And I will put my fear in their hearts
that they will not turn away from me."
41 "And I will rejoice over them,
to do good to them,
and I will plant them in this land with truth,
and with all my heart, and with all my soul."
42 For thus says Yahweh,
"Just as I have brought on this people
all this evil,
so I will bring upon them all the good
which I have spoken upon them."
43 "And fields will be bought in this land,
of which you say,
'It is desolate,
without man and without beast,
it has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.'"
44 "They will buy fields for silver,
and write it in a book and seal it,
and record 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 Shephelah,
and in the cities of the Negev,
for I will cause their exiles to return,"
declares Yahweh.