Jeremiah 49:1–33; Jeremiah 22:24–23:32; 2 Kings 24:5–9; 2 Chronicles 36:6–9

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Jeremiah 49:1–33

Judgment on Ammon

aConcerning the Ammonites.

Thus says the Lord:

Has Israel no sons?

Has he no heir?

Why then has bMilcom1 cdispossessed Gad,

and his people settled in its cities?

Therefore, behold, the days are coming,

declares the Lord,

when I will cause dthe battle cry to be heard

against eRabbah of the Ammonites;

it shall become a desolate fmound,

and its villages shall be burned with fire;

then Israel shall dispossess those who dispossessed him,

says the Lord.

Wail, O gHeshbon, for Ai is laid waste!

Cry out, O daughters of eRabbah!

hPut on sackcloth,

lament, and run to and fro among the hedges!

For iMilcom shall go into exile,

jwith his priests and his officials.

Why do you boast of your valleys,2

kO faithless daughter,

lwho trusted in her treasures, saying,

Who will come against me?

Behold, mI will bring terror upon you,

declares the Lord God of hosts,

from all who are around you,

and you shall be driven out, every man straight before him,

with none to gather the fugitives.

But nafterward I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites, declares the Lord.

Judgment on Edom

Concerning oEdom.

Thus says the Lord of hosts:

pIs wisdom no more in pTeman?

qHas counsel perished from the prudent?

qHas their wisdom vanished?

rFlee, turn back, dwell in the depths,

O inhabitants of sDedan!

For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him,

tthe time when I punish him.

uIf grape gatherers came to you,

would they not leave vgleanings?

uIf thieves came by night,

would they not destroy only enough for themselves?

10  wBut I have stripped Esau bare;

uI have uncovered his hiding places,

and he is not able to conceal himself.

His children are destroyed, and his brothers,

and his neighbors; and xhe is no more.

11  yLeave your fatherless children; I will keep them alive;

yand let your widows trust in me.

12 For thus says the Lord: zIf those who did not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, awill you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you must drink. 13 bFor I have sworn by myself, declares the Lord, that cBozrah shall become da horror, a taunt, a waste, and a curse, and all her cities shall be perpetual wastes.

14  eI have heard a message from the Lord,

and an envoy has been sent among the nations:

fGather yourselves together and come against her,

and rise up for battle!

15  For behold, I will make you small among the nations,

despised among mankind.

16  The horror you inspire has deceived you,

and the pride of your heart,

you who live in the clefts of the rock,3

who hold the height of the hill.

Though you gmake your nest as high as the eagle’s,

I will bring you down from there,

declares the Lord.

17 hEdom shall become a horror. iEveryone who passes by it will be horrified iand will hiss because of all its disasters. 18 jAs when Sodom and Gomorrah and their kneighboring cities were overthrown, says the Lord, lno man shall dwell there, lno man shall sojourn in her. 19 mBehold, nlike a lion coming up from othe jungle of the Jordan against a perennial pasture, I will suddenly make him4 run away from her. And I will appoint over her whomever I choose. pFor who is like me? qWho will summon me? rWhat shepherd can stand before me? 20 Therefore hear the plan that the Lord has made against sEdom and the purposes that he has formed against the inhabitants of tTeman: uEven the little ones of the flock shall be dragged away. Surely their fold shall be appalled at their fate. 21 At the sound of their fall vthe earth shall tremble; the sound of their cry shall be heard at the Red Sea. 22 Behold, wone shall mount up and fly swiftly like an eagle and spread his wings against xBozrah, and the heart of the warriors of Edom shall be in that day like the heart yof a woman in her birth pains.

Judgment on Damascus

23 Concerning zDamascus:

aHamath and bArpad are confounded,

for they have heard bad news;

they melt in fear,

cthey are troubled like the sea that cannot be quiet.

24  zDamascus has become feeble, dshe turned to flee,

and panic seized her;

anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her,

as yof a woman in labor.

25  How is ethe famous city not forsaken,

the city of my joy?

26  fTherefore her young men shall fall in her squares,

and all her soldiers shall be destroyed in that day,

declares the Lord of hosts.

27  And gI will kindle a fire in the wall of zDamascus,

and it shall devour the strongholds of hBen-hadad.

Judgment on Kedar and Hazor

28 Concerning iKedar and the kingdoms of Hazor that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck down.

Thus says the Lord:

jRise up, advance against iKedar!

Destroy kthe people of the east!

29  lTheir tents and their flocks shall be taken,

their lcurtains and all their goods;

their camels shall be led away from them,

and men shall cry to them: mTerror on every side!

30  nFlee, wander far away, dwell in the depths,

O inhabitants of Hazor!

declares the Lord.

For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon

has made a plan against you

and formed a purpose against you.

31  jRise up, advance against a nation oat ease,

pthat dwells securely,

declares the Lord,

pthat has no gates or bars,

that dwells alone.

32  qTheir camels shall become plunder,

their herds of livestock a spoil.

rI will scatter to every wind

sthose who cut the corners of their hair,

and I will bring their calamity

from every side of them,

declares the Lord.

33  Hazor shall become ta haunt of jackals,

an everlasting waste;

uno man shall dwell there;

uno man shall sojourn in her.


Jeremiah 22:24–23:32

24 iAs I live, declares the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were jthe signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off 25 and kgive you linto the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26 mI will hurl you and nthe mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. 27 But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return.

28  Is this man oConiah a despised, broken pot,

a pvessel no one cares for?

Why are he and his children hurled and cast

into a qland that they do not know?

29  rO land, land, land,

hear the word of the Lord!

30  Thus says the Lord:

Write this man down as schildless,

a man who shall not succeed in his days,

tfor none of his offspring shall succeed

tin sitting on the throne of David

and ruling again in Judah.

The Righteous Branch

uWoe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning uthe shepherds who care for my people: You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. vBehold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. wThen I will gather the remnant of my flock xout of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, yand they shall be fruitful and multiply. zI will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.

aBehold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous bBranch, and che shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and dIsrael will edwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: fThe Lord is our righteousness.

gTherefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he1 had driven them. Then they shall dwell in their own land.

Lying Prophets

Concerning the prophets:

hMy heart is broken within me;

iall my bones shake;

I am like a drunken man,

like a man overcome by wine,

because of the Lord

and because of his holy words.

10  jFor the land is full of adulterers;

kbecause of the curse lthe land mourns,

and mthe pastures of the wilderness are dried up.

nTheir course is evil,

and their might is not right.

11  oBoth prophet and priest are ungodly;

even pin my house I have found their evil,

declares the Lord.

12  qTherefore their way shall be to them

like slippery paths rin the darkness,

into which they shall be driven and fall,

for I will bring disaster upon them

sin the year of their punishment,

declares the Lord.

13  In the prophets of tSamaria

uI saw an unsavory thing:

vthey prophesied by Baal

wand led my people Israel astray.

14  But in the prophets of Jerusalem

I have seen a horrible thing:

xthey commit adultery and walk in lies;

ythey strengthen the hands of evildoers,

so that no one turns from his evil;

zall of them have become like Sodom to me,

zand its inhabitants like Gomorrah.

15  Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:

aBehold, I will feed them with bitter food

aand give them bpoisoned water to drink,

for from the prophets of Jerusalem

ungodliness has gone out into all the land.

16 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, cfilling you with vain hopes. dThey speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. 17 They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, eIt shall be well with you; and to everyone who fstubbornly follows his own heart, they say, gNo disaster shall come upon you.

18  For hwho among them has stood in the council of the Lord

to see and to hear his word,

or who has paid attention to his word and listened?

19  iBehold, the storm of the Lord!

Wrath has gone forth,

ja whirling tempest;

it will burst upon the head of the wicked.

20  kThe anger of the Lord will not turn back

until he has executed and kaccomplished

the intents of his heart.

lIn the latter days you will understand it clearly.

21  mI did not send the prophets,

yet they ran;

I did not speak to them,

yet they prophesied.

22  nBut if they had stood in my council,

then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,

oand they would have turned them from their evil way,

and pfrom the evil of their deeds.

23 qAm I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? 24 qCan a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. rDo I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. 25 I have heard what the prophets have said swho prophesy lies in my name, saying, tI have dreamed, I have dreamed! 26 How long shall there be lies in the heart of uthe prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, 27 who think to make my people forget my name tby their dreams that they tell one another, even as their vfathers forgot my name for Baal? 28 wLet the prophet who has a dream xtell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. yWhat has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. 29 yIs not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and zlike a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? 30 aTherefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who steal my words from one another. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who use their tongues and declare, declares the Lord. 32 Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the Lord, and who tell them and blead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when cI did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the Lord.


2 Kings 24:5–9

qNow the rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? So Jehoiakim rslept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place. sAnd the king of Egypt did not come again out of his land, tfor the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt ufrom the Brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates.

Jehoiachin Reigns in Judah

vJehoiachin was weighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, xaccording to all that his father had done.


2 Chronicles 36:6–9

pAgainst him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon qand bound him in chains rto take him to Babylon. sNebuchadnezzar also carried part of the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon and put them in his palace in Babylon. tNow the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and the abominations that he did, and what was found against him, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.

uJehoiachin was eighteen1 years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.