God

And to the priests--the Levites, Not cut off from before Me is one, Causing a burnt-offering to ascend, And perfuming a present, and making sacrifice--all the days.'

And there is a word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah, saying,

`Thus said Jehovah: If ye do break My covenant of the day, And My covenant of the night, So that they are not daily and nightly in their season,

Also My covenant is broken with David My servant, So that he hath not a son reigning on his throne, And with the Levites the priests, My ministers.

As the host of the heavens is not numbered, Nor the sand of the sea measured, So I multiply the seed of David My servant, And the Levites My ministers.'

And there is a word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah, saying:

`Hast thou not considered what this people have spoken, saying: The two families on which Jehovah fixed, He doth reject them, And my people they despise--So that they are no more a people before them!

Thus said Jehovah: If My covenant is not daily and nightly, The statutes of heaven and earth I have not appointed--

Also the seed of Jacob, and David My servant, I reject, Against taking from his seed rulers For the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, For I turn back to their captivity, and have pitied them.'

The word that hath been unto Jeremiah from Jehovah--and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his force, and all kingdoms of the land of the dominion of his hand, and all the peoples are fighting against Jerusalem, and against all its cities--saying:

`Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel: Go, and thou hast spoken unto Zedekiah king of Judah, and hast said unto him, Thus said Jehovah: Lo, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he hath burned it with fire,

`Only, hear a word of Jehovah, O Zedekiah king of Judah, Thus said Jehovah unto thee: Thou dost not die by sword,

in peace thou diest, and with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings who have been before thee, so they make a burning for thee; and Ah, lord, they lament for thee, for the word I have spoken--an affirmation of Jehovah.'

The word that hath been unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, after the making by the king Zedekiah of a covenant with all the people who are in Jerusalem, to proclaim to them liberty,

And there is a word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying:

`Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, I--I made a covenant with your fathers in the day of My bringing them forth from the land of Egypt, from a house of servants, saying,

At the end of seven years ye do send forth each his brother, the Hebrew, who is sold to thee, and hath served thee six years, yea, thou hast sent him forth free from thee: and your fathers hearkened not unto Me, nor inclined their ear.

`And ye turn back, ye to-day, and ye do that which is right in Mine eyes, to proclaim liberty each to his neighbour, and ye make a covenant before Me in the house over which My name is called.

And--ye turn back, and pollute My name, and ye cause each his man-servant and each his maid-servant, whom he had sent forth free, (at their pleasure,) to return, and ye subdue them to be to you for men-servants and for maid-servants.

`Therefore, thus said Jehovah: Ye have not hearkened unto Me to proclaim freedom, each to his brother, and each to his neighbour; lo, I am proclaiming to you liberty--an affirmation of Jehovah--unto the sword, unto the pestilence, and unto the famine, and I have given you for a trembling to all kingdoms of the earth.

`And I have given the men who are transgressing My covenant, who have not established the words of the covenant that they have made before Me, by the calf, that they have cut in two, and pass through between its pieces--

yea, I have given them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those seeking their soul, and their carcase hath been for food to the fowl of the heavens, and to the beast of the earth.

`And Zedekiah king of Judah, and his heads, I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those seeking their soul, and into the hand of the forces of the king of Babylon, that are going up from off you.

Lo, I am commanding--an affirmation of Jehovah--and have brought them back unto this city, and they have fought against it, and captured it, and burned it with fire, and the cities of Judah I do make a desolation--without inhabitant.'

The word that hath been unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, saying: