Zedekiah Reigns in Judah

18 ^qZedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was ^rHamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 19 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, ^saccording to all that Jehoiakim had done. 20 For because of the anger of the Lord it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence.

^tAnd Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

11 ^yZedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before ^zJeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. 13 ^aHe also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. ^bHe stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord, the God of Israel. 14 All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of the Lord that he had made holy in Jerusalem.

The Fall of Jerusalem Recounted

1 ^cZedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, ^daccording to all that Jehoiakim had done. 3 For because of the anger of the Lord it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence.

And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

The Good Figs and the Bad Figs

1 ^jAfter Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem ^kJeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with ^lthe officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision: behold, ^mtwo baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. 2 One basket had very good figs, ⁿlike first-ripe figs, but the other basket had ^overy bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. 3 And the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

4 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 5 “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, ^pwhom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6 ^qI will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. ^rI will build them up, and not tear them down; ^sI will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 ^tI will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, ^uand they shall be my people ^uand I will be their God, ^vfor they shall return to me with their whole heart.

8 “But thus says the Lord: Like ^wthe bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat ^xZedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who ^ydwell in the land of Egypt. 9 I will make them ^za horror¹ to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be ^aa reproach, ^ba byword, ^aa taunt, and ^ca curse in all the places where I shall drive them. 10 And I will send ^dsword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.”

Jeremiah Persecuted by Pashhur

1 Now ^jPashhur the priest, the son of ^kImmer, who was ^lchief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2 Then ^jPashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him ^min the stocks that were in the upper ⁿBenjamin Gate of the house of the Lord. 3 The next day, when ^jPashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord does not call your name ^jPashhur, but Terror on Every Side. 4 For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will make you ^oa terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword. 5 Moreover, ^pI will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its ^qprized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. 6 And you, ^rPashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, ^sto whom you have prophesied falsely.”

Evil in the Land

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 ^j“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^kAmend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 ^lDo not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

5 “For if you truly ^mamend your ways and your deeds, if you truly ⁿexecute justice one with another, 6 if you ⁿdo not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, ^mor shed innocent blood in this place, ^oand if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, 7 ^pthen I will let you dwell in this place, ^qin the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 ^rWill you steal, murder, commit adultery, ^sswear falsely, ^tmake offerings to Baal, ^oand go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, ^uwhich is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 ^vHas this house, ^uwhich is called by my name, ^wbecome a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. 12 Go now to ^xmy place that was in Shiloh, ^ywhere I made my name dwell at first, and ^zsee what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and ^awhen I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and ^bwhen I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to ^cthe house ^uthat is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, ^zas I did to Shiloh. 15 ^cAnd I will cast you out of my sight, ^das I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of ^eEphraim.

16 “As for you, ^fdo not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, ^gand the women knead dough, to ^hmake cakes for ⁱthe queen of heaven. And ^jthey pour out drink offerings to other gods, ^kto provoke me to anger. 19 ^lIs it I whom they provoke? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, ^mto their own shame? 20 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, ⁿmy anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; ^oit will burn and not be quenched.”

21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^p“Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. 22 For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them ^qconcerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 But this command I gave them: ^r‘Obey my voice, and ^sI will be your God, and you shall be my people. ^tAnd walk in all the way that I command you, ^uthat it may be well with you.’ 24 ^vBut they did not obey or incline their ear, ^wbut walked in their own counsels and ^xthe stubbornness of their evil hearts, and ^ywent backward and not forward. 25 From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, ^zI have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. 26 ^vYet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, ^abut stiffened their neck. ^bThey did worse than their fathers.

27 ^c“So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. ^dYou shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; ^etruth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.

The Valley of Slaughter

30 “For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set ^htheir detestable things in the house ⁱthat is called by my name, to ^hdefile it. 31 And they have built the high places of ^jTopheth, which is in ^kthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, ^lto burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, ^mwhich I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. 32 ⁿTherefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called ^jTopheth, or ^kthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; ^ofor they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. 33 ^pAnd the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, ^qand none will frighten them away. 34 ^rAnd I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, ^sfor the land shall become a waste.