The Hebrew Prophets

And I have set Mine eyes on them for good, And have brought them back to this land, And built them up, and I throw not down, And have planted them, and pluck not up.

And have given to them a heart to know Me, For I am Jehovah, And they have been to Me for a people, And I am to them for God, For they turned back unto Me with all their heart.

And like the bad figs, that are not eaten for badness, Surely thus said Jehovah: So do I make Zedekiah king of Judah, And his heads, and the remnant of Jerusalem, Who are left in this land, And who are dwelling in the land of Egypt,

And I have given them for a trembling, For evil--to all kingdoms of the earth, For a reproach, and for a simile, For a byword, and for a reviling, In all the places whither I drive them.

And I have sent against them the sword, The famine and the pestilence, Till their consumption from off the ground, That I gave to them and to their fathers!

The word that hath been unto Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, --it is the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, --

Which Jeremiah the prophet hath spoken concerning all the people of Judah, even unto all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:

`From the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah, and unto this day--this three and twentieth year--hath the word of Jehovah been unto me, and I speak unto you, rising early and speaking, and ye have not hearkened;

And Jehovah hath sent unto you all His servants, the prophets, rising early and sending, and ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear, saying:

`Turn back, I pray you, each from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell on the ground that Jehovah hath given to you and to your fathers from age unto age,

And ye do not go after other gods to serve them, and to bow yourselves to them, nor do ye provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, and I do no evil to you;

And ye have not hearkened unto Me--an affirmation of Jehovah--so as to provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands for evil to you.

`Therefore thus said Jehovah of Hosts, Because that ye have not obeyed My words,

Lo, I am sending, and have taken all the families of the north--an affirmation of Jehovah--even unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and have brought them in against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations round about, and have devoted them, and appointed them for an astonishment, and for a hissing, and for wastes age-during.

And I have destroyed from them the voice of rejoicing, and the voice of joy, voice of bridegroom and voice of bride, noise of millstones, and the light of lamps.

And all this land hath been for a waste, for an astonishment, and these nations have served the king of Babylon seventy years.

`And it hath come to pass, at the fulness of seventy years, I charge against the king of Babylon, and against that nation--an affirmation of Jehovah--their iniquity, and against the land of the Chaldeans, and have appointed it for desolations age-during.

And I have brought in on that land all My words that I have spoken against it, all that is written in this book, that Jeremiah hath prophesied concerning all the nations.

For laid service on them--also them--have many nations and great kings, and I have given recompence to them according to their doing, and according to the work of their hands.

`For thus said Jehovah God of Israel unto me, Take the wine cup of this fury out of My hand, and thou hast caused all the nations to drink it unto whom I am sending thee;

And they have drunk, and shaken themselves and shewn themselves foolish, because of the sword that I am sending among them.

`And I take the cup out of the hand of Jehovah, and cause all the nations to drink unto whom Jehovah sent me:

Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, And its kings, its heads, To give them to waste, to astonishment, To hissing, and to reviling, as at this day.

Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, And his heads, and all his people,

And all the mixed people, And all the kings of the land of Uz, And all the kings of the land of the Philistines, And Ashkelon, and Gazzah, and Ekron, And the remnant of Ashdod,