1The word that was made of the Lord to Jeremy, in the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah; that is the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

2Then the host of the king of Babylon besieged Jerusalem; and Jeremy, the prophet, was enclosed in the porch of the prison, that was in the house of the king of Judah.

3For why Zedekiah, the king of Judah, had enclosed him, and said, Why prophesiest thou, saying, The Lord saith these things, Lo! I shall give this city in[to] the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;

4and Zedekiah, king of Judah, shall not escape from the hand of Chaldees, but he shall be betaken into the hand of the king of Babylon; and his mouth shall speak with the mouth of him, and his eyes shall see the eyes of him;

5and he shall lead Zedekiah into Babylon, and he shall be there, till I visit him, saith the Lord; forsooth if ye fight against [the] Chaldees, ye shall have nothing in prosperity?

6And Jeremy said, The word of the Lord was made to me, and said,

7Lo! Hanameel, the son of Shallum, the son of thy father’s brother, shall come to thee, and say, Buy thou to thee my field, which is in Anathoth; for it befalleth to thee by nigh kindred, that thou buy it.

8And Hanameel, the son of my father’s brother, came to me, by the word of the Lord, to the porch of the prison, and said to me, Wield thou my field, which is in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin; for why the heritage befalleth to thee, and thou art the next of blood, that thou wield it. Forsooth I understood, that it was the word of the Lord.

9And I bought the field, which is in Anathoth, of Hanameel, the son of my father’s brother. And I paid to him silver, seven staters, and ten pieces of silver;

10and I wrote in a book, and I sealed, and I gave witnesses. And I weighed silver in a balance;

11and I took the book asealed of possession, and [the] askings and [the] answerings of the seller and [the] buyer, and [the] covenants, and [the] seals withoutforth.

12And I gave the book of possession to Baruch, the son of Neriah, son of Maaseiah, before the eyes of Hanameel, the son of my father’s brother, and before the eyes of witnesses that were written in the book of [the] buying, before the eyes of all Jews, that sat in the porch of the prison.

13And I commanded to Baruch before them, and I said,

14The Lord of hosts, God of Israel, saith these things, Take thou these books, this sealed book of buying, and this book which is open, and put thou those [or them] in an earthen vessel, that they may dwell many days.

15For why the Lord of hosts, God of Israel, saith these things, Yet houses, and fields, and vines shall be wielded in this land.

16And I prayed to the Lord, after that I betook the book of possession to Baruch, the son of Neriah; and I said,

17Alas! alas! alas! Lord God, Lord, thou madest heaven and earth in thy great strength, and in thine arm stretched forth; each word shall not be hard to thee;

18which doest mercy in thousands, and yieldest the wickedness of fathers into the bosom of their sons after them. Thou strongest, great, mighty, Lord of hosts is name to thee;

19great in counsel, and uncompre-hensible in thought, whose eyes be open on all the ways of the sons of Adam, that thou yield to each after his ways, and after the fruit of his findings;

20which settedest signs and great wonders in the land of Egypt, unto this day, both in Israel, and in men; and madest to thee a name, as this day is.

21And thou leddest thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt, in signs and in great wonders, and in a strong hand, and in an arm holden forth, and in great dread;

22and thou gavest to them this land, which thou sworest to the fathers of them, that thou wouldest give to them, a land flowing with milk and honey.

23And they entered, and had it in possession; and they obeyed not to thy voice, and they went not in thy law; all things which thou commandedest to them to do, they did not; and all these evils befell to them.

24Lo! strongholds be builded against the city, that it be taken, and the city is given into the hands of Chaldees, and into the hands of the king of Babylon, that fight against it, of the face of [the] sword, and of hunger, and of pestilence; and whatever things thou spakest, befell, as thou thyself seest.

25And thou saidest to me, Lord God, Buy thou a field for silver, and give thou witnesses, when the city is given in the hands of Chaldees.

26And the word of the Lord was made to Jeremy, and said,

27Lo! I am the Lord God of all flesh. Whether any word shall be hard to me?

28Therefore the Lord saith these things, Lo! I shall betake this city into the hands of Chaldees, and into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.

29And Chaldees shall come, and fight against this city, and they shall burn it with fire, and they shall burn it, and [the] houses, in whose roofs they sacrificed to Baal, and offered moist sacrifices to alien gods, to stir me to wrath.

30For why the sons of Israel, and the sons of Judah, did evil continually, from their young waxing age, before mine eyes; the sons of Israel, which till to now wrathed me by the work of their hands, saith the Lord.

31For why this city is made to me in my strong vengeance and indignation, from the day in which they built it, unto this day, in which it shall be taken away from my sight;

32for the malice of the sons of Israel, and of the sons of Judah, which they did, stirring me to wrath-fulness, they, and the kings of them, the princes of them, and the priests, and prophets of them, the men of Judah, and the dwellers of Jerusalem.

33And they turned to me the backs, and not the faces, when I taught, and informed them early; and they would not hear, that they should take teaching.

34And they setted their idols in the house, in which my name is called to help, that they should defoul it.

35And they builded high things to Baal, that be in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, that they should hallow their sons and their daughters to Molech, which thing I commanded not to them, neither it ascended [or went up] into mine heart, that they should do this abomination, and bring [down] Judah into sin.

36And now for these things, the Lord God of Israel saith these things to this city, of which ye say, that it shall be betaken into the hands of the king of Babylon, in sword, and in hunger, and in pestilence,

37Lo! I shall gather them from all lands, to which I casted them out in my strong vengeance, and in my wrath, and in great indignation; and I shall bring them again to this place, and I shall make them to dwell trustily.

38And they shall be into a people to me, and I shall be into God to them.

39And I shall give to them one heart, and one soul, that they dread me in all days, and that it be well to them, and to their sons after them.

40And I shall smite to them a covenant everlasting, and I shall not cease to do well to them, and I shall give my dread in the heart of them, that they go not away from me.

41And I shall be glad on them, when I shall do well to them; and I shall plant them in this land in truth, in all mine heart, and in all my soul.

42For the Lord saith these things, As I brought on this people all this great evil, so I shall bring on them all the good, which I shall speak to them.

43And fields shall be wielded in this land, of which ye say, that it is desert, for no man and beast is left; and it is given into the hands of Chaldees.

44Fields shall be bought for money, and shall be written in a book, and a seal shall be imprinted; and witnesses shall be given, in the land of Benjamin, and in the compass of Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities in [the] hilly places, and in the cities in [the] field places, and in the cities that be at the south; for I shall turn the captivity of them, saith the Lord.