- The word of Yahweh comes to Jeremiah: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you came out sanctified, I ordained you a prophet unto the nation—it is Yahweh who speaks. I see a seething pot spilling its contents North where disaster is boiling over. #Jer1
- Yahweh says: I remember the affection of your youth. My people have committed a double crime: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water. They hew leaky cisterns holding no water. You did not accept criticism: your sword devoured your prophets. Where are your gods? #Jer2
- Yahweh asks, if a man divorces his wife, can she return to him & not pollute the land? You have prostituted yourself with so many lovers. You have a whore’s forehead. Backsliding Israel and her treacherous sister Judah have played the harlot. #Jer3
- Break up your fallow grounds & sow not among the thorns. Stay not, for I will bring evil from the North. Wash your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem. He comes up on a cloud, as a dry wind on high places. Woe! For we are spoiled. #Jer4
- If you can find one man who seeks truth, I will pardon his judgment. The ordinary people refuse to repent. They do not know what Yahweh requires. Why should I pardon you? You have abandoned me. I will make my words fire in your mouth. What will you do when the end comes? #Jer5
- Disaster threatens from the North. Shall we compare the daughter of Zion to a pasture? Glean the remnant of the vine Israel. Prophet no less than priest practice fraud. Your holocausts are not acceptable. Assay my people, purge the dross. #Jer6
- It is Yahweh who speaks—put no trust in lying words, like |:Temple of the Lord:|x3. Has this house become a den of robbers? Yahweh’s wrath is against insincere worship and idolatry. I, Yahweh Sabaoth, sent you my servants the prophets. Yahweh rejects the brood he detests. #Jer7
- The bones of princes, priests and prophets will be arrayed on a hill like dung. Because of lying scribes, my people do not know their season or Yahweh’s Law. Prophet no less than priest, all practice fraud. Yahweh wants us to perish. Is there not balm in Gilead anymore? #Jer8
- That I might leave my people! Deceivers and liars! Peace, they say to a neighbor while plotting a trap. They do not even blush for shame. They have followed Baal. I will give them wormwood and gall, and scatter them. Call the mourning women and teach your daughters to wail. #Jer9
- Learn not the way of the heathen: they cannot do evil, neither is it also in them to do good. They are brutish & foolish. But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God & everlasting king. The molten image is falsehood, without breath. The pastors sought not the Lord. #Jer10
- The Lord reaffirms his covenant with the people he brought out of Egypt. Yet they—even Judah—served other gods & offered incense to Baal. My love is an olive tree, green with fruit. The men of Anathoth plot against Jeremiah & are destroyed; their daughters die by famine. #Jer11
- Why does the way of the wicked prosper, O Lord? Prepare them for the day of slaughter. Pastors have destroyed my vineyard and made it desolate. Behold, I will pluck them out of their land—the house of Judah among them—and will return them. I will destroy who does not obey. #Jer12
- Yahweh has Jeremiah buy, bury, & retrieve a by-then ruined loincloth. Thus I will mar the pride of Jerusalem, for a girdle clings to man as Israel & Judah to the Lord. Do we not fill the wineskins to find & destroy the drunkards? Judah shall wholly be carried away captive. #Jer13
- The horrors of drought in Judah are described: the wild asses on the high places snuffed up the wind like dragons. We call on Yahweh, who says, my people love to wander, but Yahweh accepts them no more. False prophets die. We confess our iniquities and our fathers’ guilt. #Jer14
- My people such as are for death (the sword, famine, & captivity), to death (…). I weary of repenting. I will bereave them of children & destroy my people. It is Yahweh who speaks. I will make you pass into a land you know not. Why is my pain perpetual? I will deliver thee. #Jer15
- The words of Yahweh: To punish you for your fathers worshipping alien gods, I will exile you to a land of alien gods. Can man make his own gods? If so these are not gods! Woe to daughters of Zion, they shall die grievous unlamented deaths as dung on the face of the earth. #Jer16
- For the sins of Judah, you have kindled a fire in my anger. Cursed is he who trusts in the flesh; blessed is he who trusts in the Lord. The heart is deceitful above all things. Bear no burden on the Sabbath. Hallow it & Jerusalem flourishes. Listen not & Jerusalem burns. #Jer17
- As the clay is in the potter’s hand, you, O house of Israel, are in my hand. Would you forsake the snowy Lebanon waters for strange waters? Because my people have forgotten me, I will scatter them as with an east wind. They conspire to slay me, O Lord, deal thus with them. #Jer18
- The Lord has Jeremiah take pottery to the valley of Hinnom/Gehenna &, with priests and elders, read a bill of indictment against those who have forsaken me, building in high places, & sacrificing children. They shall eat their own children. The jug is broken like Israel. #Jer19
- The priest Pashur, son of Immer, puts Jeremiah in stocks. Upon release, he abuses Pashur: You are terror. I will give Judah to Babylon. You and the spoil will be taken there to die. Jeremiah grieves mightily. The Lord is as a mighty warrior. Cursed be the day I was born. #Jer20
- Zedekiah sends Pashur, son of Malkijah, & the priest Zephaniah to inquire to Jeremiah about the NkB onslaught. A jeremiad is delivered with counsel for surrender & exile. I will smite the inhabitants—both man & beast. It will be given to Babylon, who shall burn this city. #Jer21
- Why has Yahweh let a great city be destroyed? Because they have forsaken my covenant & worshipped other gods. Jeremiah delivers broadsides against Shallum, Jehoiakim & Jehoiachin. Coniah, son of Jehoiakim, shall not prosper nor his descendants rule on the throne of David. #Jer22
- The shepherds let my flock be scattered. I will gather them back from where I dispersed them & they shall be fruitful—it is Yahweh who speaks. A branch of David will rule as true king. Concerning prophets, Yahweh Sabaoth says: They will eat wormwood & drink water of gall. #Jer23
- Yahweh shows Jeremiah a basket of good figs and a basket of bad figs. The good figs will be exiled to the land of the Chaldeans and brought back. The evil figs, among them being Zedekiah and his princes, cannot be eaten and are a taunt and a curse to where I drive them. #Jer24
- During the 4th year of Jehoiakim’s & 1st year of NkB’s reign, the Lord says, You provoke me to anger with the works of your hands. I will bring NkB, my servant, against this land, & I will make it a hissing & perpetual desolation. I made them drink to their demise. Howl! #Jer25
- Jeremiah is arrested early in Jehoiakim’s reign for prophesying in a holy place that Jerusalem, disobeying the Lord, will become as Shiloh (razed by Philistines). They free him, citing the case of Micah & Hezekiah, but prophet Urijah is taken from Egypt & put to the sword. #Jer26
- The Lord tells Jeremiah to make yokes for kings who are to serve NkB until the time that NkB’s land comes in its turn. Believe not the priests & prophets who say otherwise: submit to Babylon or die by the sword. Why should this city be laid waste? NkB takes Coniah captive. #Jer27
- The prophet Hananiah of Gibeon says that Jerusalem will be restored & Coniah returned in 2 years. Jeremiah mocks him, even after Hananiah breaks his yoke. Yahweh says I will put a yoke of iron on the neck of all nations that they may serve NkB. Hananiah dies the same year. #Jer28
- Jeremiah writes a letter to those who had been taken captive in Babylon, telling them to be fruitful and industrious: the Lord will gather you from all nations. Zedekiah and his supporters will be slain. The Lord will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, who decries Jeremiah. #Jer29
- The Lord says to the captives of Israel and Judah, the day will come when I will break your yoke. I will make an end to all nations where I scattered you, but will not make a full end of you. Your sin is great. The whirlwind of the Lord will fall on the head of the wicked. #Jer30
- Yahweh says You will again plant vineyards in the mountains. I scattered Israel & will gather them. I will turn their mourning into joy. I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel, not like the one your ancestors broke. The day comes when the city will be rebuilt. #Jer31
- The Lord restates why he is sending Israel into captivity, including burning incense to Baal and sacrificing children. The Lord instructs Jeremiah to buy a field from his cousin. Though I have brought them great evil, & Jerusalem will be sacked, their captives will return. #Jer32
- Yahweh says, I will cleanse Judah & Israel of sin by sending them into captivity & then restoring them. The voice of joy, gladness, & bride & bridegroom will replace desolation. The Lord is good; his love endures forever. The seed of David will sit on the throne of Israel. #Jer33
- Jeremiah tells Zedekiah that though he will die peacefully, NkB will burn the city. Zedekiah orders all Hebrew slaves freed as required every 7 years by Mosaic law. Those free to violate my word will be free to die by the sword, famine & pestilence, or be food for animals. #Jer34
- During Jehoiakim’s reign, the Lord tells Jeremiah to meet with the Rechabites, nomads forced to live in Jerusalem due to the Babylonian & Assyrian assaults. They are offered wine, but refuse it, citing the command of their forefathers. The Lord rewards their piety. #Jer35
- Jeremiah has Baruch write the Lord’s words on a scroll to be read at a holy place: Judah will be taken to Babylon unless it returns to the way of the Lord. Jehoiakim burns the scroll but Jeremiah makes a 2nd that also says the king, his family & helpers will be destroyed. #Jer36
- After NkB makes Zedekiah king of Judah, Jeremiah tells him that the Egyptians will retreat & the Chaldeans will burn down Jerusalem. Jeremiah is arrested while going to Benjamin, and is confined to a courtyard. Jeremiah tells Zedekiah that he will be taken to Babylon. #Jer37
- The princes tell Zedekiah that Jeremiah is undermining morale. The king releases Jeremiah to them. They place him in a cistern to starve to death, but he is rescued by Zedekiah’s men. Jeremiah again tells Zedekiah that Jerusalem will fall, and is confined in the courtyard. #Jer38
- In the 9th year of Zedekiah’s reign, NkB & his army attack Jerusalem, & in the 11th year they breach the wall and burn Jerusalem. Zedikiah flees, is captured, & taken to Babylon. His eyes are put out, & his sons & supporters are killed. Jeremiah is taken but is not harmed. #Jer39
- The commander of the guard who found Jeremiah releases him to go where he pleases. The Jewish leader Gedaliah is appointed governor of the towns of Judah, and Jeremiah stays with him. Jews from Moab, Ammon, Edom & elsewhere return to plant vineyards and serve Babylon. #Jer40
- Though forewarned by Johanan, captain of Judah’s army of remnant Jews, Gedaliah is killed at Mizpah by Ishmael & his Ammonite men. They seize Gedaliah’s women & estate. Seventy of 80 pious men who show up are slain. Johanan & his army arrive, but Ishmael escapes to Ammon. #Jer41
- Johanan & his people seek prophecy from Jeremiah. After 10 days, he relays the words of Yahweh: Do not to go to Egypt or you will die by sword, famine or pestilence. If ye still abide in this land, I will raise you up not pluck you up. Be not afraid of the king of Babylon. #Jer42
- Despite this prophecy, Johanan & the army round up all the remnant Jews, including Jeremiah & Baruch, and go to Egypt. At Tahpanhes in Goshen, Jeremiah receives the word of Yahweh that NkB will sack Egypt & set fire to the temple of the Gods & the obelisks of Bethshemesh. #Jer43
- Jeremiah tells the Jews living in Egypt that the destruction of Judah is for the sins of Israel. All Jews in Egypt will perish as Yahweh is angry because the women burn incense and pour out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven. The women in Egypt reject Jeremiah’s words. #Jer44
- At the time that Baruch wrote the scroll for Jeremiah (#Jer36), the Lord’s words came to Jeremiah regarding Baruch. That which I have built, I will destroy, and that which I plant, I will pluck up. I will bring evil on all flesh, but you will keep your life. #Jer45
- Jeremiah gives oracles on nations. Egypt, a fair heifer, rises like a flood, but destruction comes from the North. Come up, ye horses; rage, ye chariots! This day of vengeance the sword will be made drunk with their blood. The destruction of Egypt by NkB is foretold. #Jer46
- The word of the Lord to Jeremiah on Philistine: Behold, waters rise up out of the north & shall be an overflowing flood. All the inhabitants of the land shall howl. Can the sword of the Lord be put into a scabbard, seeing the Lord has given it a charge against Ashkelon? #Jer47
- The Lord says Moab has been at rest from youth, like wine left on its dregs, not poured from one jar to another—she has not gone into exile. So she tastes as she did & her aroma is unchanged. The horn of Moab is cut off; Moab is broken like a jar no one wants. Woe to Moab! #Jer48
- Oracles on nations and cities: Ammon shall be a desolate heap; her children made captive. Edom will be like Sodom & Gomorrah: no one shall abide there. Damascus will wax feeble & its walls will burn. NkB shall smite Kedar & Hazor. I will bring evil on Elam & break its bow. #Jer49
- Babylon is taken. Bel & Marduk are broken. From the north comes a nation against her. My people, Israel, are as lost & scattered sheep. Leave Babylon: be as he-goats before the flocks. Their redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is his name. A sword is upon the Chaldeans. #Jer50
- Flee out of the midst of Babylon, for this is the time of the Lord’s revenge. Babylon is fallen. The sea has come up upon her, & she shall be desolate forever. Thresh the daughter of Babylon & her harvest will come. Her broad walls shall be broken & high gates shall burn. #Jer51
- Angered by Zedekiah & Jehoiakim’s evil, the Lord has the army of NkB seige & breach Jerusalem. Zedekiah & his people flee, are captured, taken to Babylon & slain (except Zedekiah, whose eyes are put out). The temple is burnt. Its treasure & 4600 Jews are taken to Babylon. #Jer52