But Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD has named you not Pashhur, but Magor-missabib.b 4For thus said the LORD: I am going to deliver you and all your friends over to terror: they will fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. I will deliver all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon; he will exile them to Babylon or put them to the sword. 5And I will deliver all the wealth, all the riches, and all the prized possessions of this city, and I will also deliver all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hands of their enemies: they shall seize them as plunder and carry them off to Babylon. 6As for you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, you shall go into captivity. You shall come to Babylon; there you shall die and there you shall be buried, and so shall all your friends to whom you prophesied falsely.”
7You enticed me, O LORD, and I was enticed;
You overpowered me and You prevailed.
I have become a constant laughingstock,
Everyone jeers at me.
8For every time I speak, I must cry out,
Must shout, “Lawlessness and rapine!”
For the word of the LORD causes me
Constant disgrace and contempt.
9I thought, “I will not mention Him,
No more will I speak in His name”—
But [His word] was like a raging fire in my heart,
Shut up in my bones;
I could not hold it in, I was helpless.
10I heard the whispers of the crowd—
Terror all around:
“Inform! Let us inform against him!”
All my [supposed] friends
Are waiting for me to stumble:
“Perhaps he can be entrapped,
And we can prevail against him
And take our vengeance on him.”
11But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior;
Therefore my persecutors shall stumble;
They shall not prevail and shall not succeed.
They shall be utterly shamed
With a humiliation for all time,
Which shall not be forgotten.
12O LORD of Hosts, You who test the righteous,
Who examine the heart and the mind,
Let me see Your retribution upon them,
For I lay my case before You.
13Sing unto the LORD,
Praise the LORD,
For He has rescued the needy
From the hands of evildoers!
14Accursed be the day
That I was born!
Let not the day be blessed
When my mother bore me!
15Accursed be the man
Who brought my father the news
And said, “A boy
Is born to you,”
And gave him such joy!
16Let that manc become like the cities
Which the LORD overthrew without relenting!
Let him hear shrieks in the morning
And battle shouts at noontide—
17Because he did not kill me before birth
So that my mother might be my grave,
And her womb big [with me] for all time.
18Why did I ever issue from the womb,
To see misery and woe,
To spend all my days in shame!
21 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malchiah and the priest Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah, to say, 2“Please inquire of the LORD on our behalf, for King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon is attacking us. Perhaps the LORD will act for our sake in accordance with all His wonders, so that [Nebuchadrezzar] will withdraw from us.”
3Jeremiah answered them, “Thus shall you say to Zedekiah: 4Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: I am going to turn around the weapons in your hands with which you are battling outside the wall against those who are besieging you—the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans—and I will take them into the midst of this city; 5and I Myself will battle against you with an outstretched mighty arm, with anger and rage and great wrath. 6I will strike the inhabitants of this city, man and beast: they shall die by a terrible pestilence. 7And then—declares the LORD—I will deliver King Zedekiah of Judah and his courtiers and the people—those in this city who survive the pestilence, the sword, and the famine—into the hands of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, into the hands of their enemies, into the hands of those who seek their lives. He will put them to the sword without pity, without compassion, without mercy.
8“And to this people you shall say: Thus said the LORD: I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 9Whoever remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but whoever leaves and goes over to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live; a-he shall at least gain his life.-a 10For I have set My face against this city for evil and not for good—declares the LORD. It shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon, who will destroy it by fire.”
11To the House of the king of Judah: Hear the word of the LORD! 12O House of David, thus said the LORD:
Render just verdicts
Morning by morning;
Rescue him who is robbed
From him who defrauded him.
Else My wrath will break forth like fire
And burn, with none to quench it,
Because of your wicked acts.
13I will deal with you, b-O inhabitants of the valley,
O rock of the plain-b—declares the LORD—
You who say, “Who can come down against us?
Who can get into our lairs?”
14I will punish you according to your deeds
—declares the LORD.
I will set fire to its forest;c
It shall consume all that is around it.
22 Thus said the LORD: Go down to the palace of the king of Judah, where you shall utter this word. 2Say: “Hear the word of the LORD: O king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David, and your courtiers and your subjects who enter these gates! 3Thus said the LORD: Do what is just and right; rescue from the defrauder him who is robbed; do not wrong the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow; commit no lawless act, and do not shed the blood of the innocent in this place. 4For if you fulfill this command, then through the gates of this palace shall enter kings of David’s line who sit upon his throne, riding horse-drawn chariots, with their courtiers and their subjects. 5But if you do not heed these commands, I swear by Myself—declares the LORD—that this palace shall become a ruin.”
6For thus said the LORD concerning the royal palace of Judah:
You are as Gilead to Me,
As the summit of Lebanon;
But I will make you a desert,
Uninhabited towns.
7I will appoint destroyers against you,
Each with his tools;
They shall cut down your choicest cedars
And make them fall into the fire.
8And when many nations pass by this city and one man asks another, “Why did the LORD do thus to that great city?” 9the reply will be, “Because they forsook the covenant with the LORD their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.”
10Do not weep for the deada
And do not lament for him;
Weep rather for b-him who is leaving,-b
For he shall never come back
To see the land of his birth!
11For thus said the LORD concerning Shallumb son of King Josiah of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah as king, but who has gone forth from this place: He shall never come back. 12He shall die in the place to which he was exiled, and he shall not see this land again.
13Ha! he who builds his house with unfairness
And his upper chambers with injustice,
Who makes his fellow man work without pay
And does not give him his wages,
14Who thinks: I will build me a vast palace
With spacious upper chambers,
Provided with windows,
Paneled in cedar,
Painted with vermilion!
15Do you think you are more a king
Because you compete in cedar?
Your father c-ate and drank-c
And dispensed justice and equity—
Then all went well with him.
16He upheld the rights of the poor and needy—
Then all was well.
d-That is truly heeding Me-d
—declares the LORD.
17But your eyes and your mind are only
On ill-gotten gains,
On shedding the blood of the innocent,
On committing fraud and violence.
18Assuredly, thus said the LORD concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah:
e-They shall not mourn for him,
“Ah, brother! Ah, sister!”
They shall not mourn for him,
“Ah, lord! Ah, his majesty!”-e
19He shall have the burial of an ass,
Dragged out and left lying
Outside the gates of Jerusalem.
20fClimb Lebanon and cry out,
Raise your voice in Bashan,
Cry out from Abarim,
For all your lovers are crushed.
21I spoke to you when you were prosperous;
You said, “I will not listen.”
That was your way ever since your youth,
You would not heed Me.
22All your shepherdsg shall be devoured by the wind,
And your lovers shall go into captivity.
Then you shall be shamed and humiliated
Because of all your depravity.
23You who dwell in Lebanon,
Nestled among the cedars,
h-How much grace will you have-h
When pains come upon you,
Travail as in childbirth!
24As I live—declares the LORD—i-if you, O King Coniah, son of Jehoiakim, of Judah, were-i a signet on my right hand, I would tear you off even from there. 25I will deliver you into the hands of those who seek your life, into the hands of those you dread, into the hands of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon and into the hands of the Chaldeans. 26I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another land, where you were not born; there you shall both die. 27They shall not return to the land that they yearn to come back to.
28Is this man Coniah
A wretched broken pot,
A vessel no one wants?
Why are he and his offspring hurled out,
And cast away in a land they knew not?
29O land, land, land,
Hear the word of the LORD!
30Thus said the LORD:
Record this man as without succession,
One who shall never be found acceptable;
For no man of his offspring shall be accepted
To sit on the throne of David
And to rule again in Judah.
23 Ah, shepherds who let the flock of My pasture stray and scatter!— declares the LORD. 2Assuredly, thus said the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who should tend
