< Jeremiah 32 >

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar.
2 For then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah's house.
3 For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore 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 And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of 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 to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, says the LORD: though all of you fight with the Chaldeans, all of you shall not prosper.
6 And Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
7 Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum your uncle shall come unto you saying, Buy you my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of redemption is your to buy it.
8 So Hanameel 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 field, I pray you, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.
9 And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.
10 And I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances.
11 So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open:
12 And I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel mine uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.
13 And I charged Baruch before them, saying,
14 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed, and this evidence which is open; and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days.
15 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.
Thus said the Lord God of Israel; Take the cup of this unmixed wine from mine hand, and you shall cause all the nations to drink, to whom I send you.
16 Now when I had delivered the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed unto the LORD, saying,
And they shall drink, and vomit, and be mad, because of the sword which I send among them.
17 Ah Lord GOD! behold, you have made the heaven and the earth by your great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for you:
So I took the cup out of the Lord's hand, and caused the nations to whom the Lord sent me to drink:
18 You show loving kindness unto thousands, and recompence 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,
Jerusalem, and the cities of Juda, and the kings of Juda, and his princes, to make them a desert place, a desolation, and a hissing;
19 Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for your eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:
and Pharao king of Egypt, and his servants, and his nobles, and all his people;
20 Which have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day, and in Israel, and among other men; and have made you a name, as at this day;
and all the mingled [people], and all the kings of the Philistines, and Ascalon, and Gaza, and Accaron, and the remnant of Azotus,
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;
and Idumea, and the land of Moab, and the children of Ammon,
22 And have given them this land, which you did swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;
and the kings of Tyre, and the kings of Sidon, and the kings in the [country] beyond the sea,
23 And they came in, and possessed it; but they obeyed not your voice, neither walked in your law; they have done nothing of all that you commandedst them to do: therefore you have caused all this evil to come upon them:
and Daedan, and Thaeman, and Ros, and every one that is shaved round about the face,
24 Behold the mounts, they are come unto the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans, that fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence: and what you have spoken has come to pass; and, behold, you see it.
and all the mingled [people] lodging in the wilderness,
25 And you have said unto me, O Lord GOD, Buy you the field for money, and take witnesses; for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.
and all the kings of Aelam, and all the kings of the Persians,
26 Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying,
and all the kings from the north, the far and the near, each one with his brother, and all the kingdoms which are on the face of the earth.
27 Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?
And you shall say to them, Thus said the Lord Almighty; Drink you, be you drunken; and you shall vomit, and shall fall, and shall in nowise rise, because of the sword which I send among you.
28 Therefore thus says the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it:
And it shall come to pass, when they refuse to take the cup out of your hand, to drink it, that you shall say, Thus said the Lord; You shall surely drink.
29 And the Chaldeans, that fight against this city, shall come and set fire on this city, and burn it with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal, and poured out drink offerings unto other gods, to provoke me to anger.
For I am beginning to afflict the city whereon my name is called, and you shall by no means be held guiltless: for I am calling a sword upon all that dwell upon the earth.
30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done evil before me from their youth: for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, says the LORD.
And you shall prophesy against them these words, and shall say, The Lord shall speak from on high, from his sanctuary he will utter his voice; he will pronounce a declaration on his place; and these shall answer like men gathering grapes: and destruction is coming on them that dwell on the earth,
31 For this city has been to me as a provocation of mine anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before my face,
[even] upon [the extreme] part of the earth; for the Lord [has] a controversy with the nations, he is pleading with all flesh, and the ungodly are given to the sword, says the Lord.
32 Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Thus said the Lord; Behold, evils are proceeding from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind goes forth from the end of the earth.
33 And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.
And the slain of the Lord shall be in the day of the Lord from [one] end of the earth even to the [other] end of the earth: they shall not be buried; they shall be as dung on the face of the earth.
34 But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it.
Howl, you shepherds, and cry; and lament, you rams of the flock: for your days have been completed for slaughter, and you shall fall as the choice rams.
35 And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
And flight shall perish from the shepherds, and safety from the rams of the flock.
36 And now therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof all of you say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence;
A voice of the crying of the shepherds, and a moaning of the sheep and the rams: for the Lord has destroyed their pastures.
37 Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, where I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely:
And the peaceful abodes that remain shall be destroyed before the fierceness of my anger.
38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God:
He has forsaken his lair, as a lion: for their land is become desolate before the great sword.
39 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:
40 And 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, that they shall not depart from me.
41 Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.
42 For thus says the LORD; Like I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.
43 And fields shall be bought in this land, whereof all of you say, It is desolate without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.
44 Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about 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.

< Jeremiah 32 >