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¹ THE word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.² For then the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem; and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king of Judahs house.³ For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Why do you prophesy and say, Thus says the LORD: Behold, I will deliver this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;⁴ And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face, and they shall see each other eye to eye;⁵ And he shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, says the LORD; though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not win.⁶ And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying,⁷ Behold, Nahmael the son of Shallum your uncle is coming to you, saying, Buy my field which is at Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.⁸ So Nahmael my uncles son came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of the LORD, and said to me, Buy my field which is at Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.⁹ And I bought the field of Nahmael my uncles son, which was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.¹⁰ And I wrote the deed, and sealed it and called witnesses, and weighed him the money in the scales.¹¹ Then I took the deed of purchase, both that which was duly sealed according to law and a copy which was not sealed;¹² And I gave the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maasiah, in the sight of Nahmael my uncles son and in the presence of the witnesses whose names were written on the deed of purchase and in the presence of all the Jews who were seated in the court of the guard.¹³ And I charged Baruch in their presence, saying,¹⁴ Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this deed of purchase which is sealed and this deed which is not sealed; and put them in an earthen vessel, so that they may be preserved for a long time.¹⁵ For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall be bought again in this land.

¹⁶ Now after I had given the deeds of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD, saying,¹⁷ Ah, LORD God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and by thy stretched out arm, and there is nothing hidden from thee;¹⁸ Thou showest lovingkindness to thousands of generations, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers to the bosom of their children after them; thou art the Great God, the Mighty and Revered, the LORD of hosts is his name,¹⁹ Great in counsel and mighty in work, whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give every one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings.²⁰ For thou didst perform great signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even to this day and in Israel and among other men; and hast made thee a name, as at this day;²¹ And hast brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders and with a strong hand and with a stretched out arm and with a great spectacle;²² And hast given them this land, which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;²³ And they came in and possessed it; but they did not obey thy voice, neither walked in thy law; they did nothing of all that thou didst command them to do; therefore all this evil has come upon them.²⁴ Behold the siege ramparts are come against this city to take it; and because of sword and of famine and of pestilence the city is delivered into the hand of the Chaldeans, who are fighting against it; and what thou hast spoken is come to pass; and, behold, I see it.²⁵ And thou, O LORD God, hast said to me, Buy the field for money, and call witnesses; and, behold the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.

²⁶ Then came the word of the LORD to Jeremiah, saying,²⁷ I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is there anything hidden from me?²⁸ Therefore thus says the LORD: Behold, I will deliver this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it;²⁹ And the Chaldeans shall come and fight against this city, and shall uproot this city and set fire to it, together with the houses upon whose roofs the people have offered incense to Baal and poured out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger.³⁰ For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only that which is evil before me from their youth; for the children of Israel have always provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, says the LORD.³¹ And because of them my anger and fury have come upon this city from the day that they built it even to this day; so that I may remove it from before my face,³² Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests and their prophets and the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.³³ And they have turned to me their backs and not their faces; though I have taught them, warning them in advance, yet they would not listen to receive instruction.³⁴ But they set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.³⁵ And they built the high places of Baal in Taphat, which is in the valley of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters as offerings to Molech; which I did not command them, nor did it come into my mind that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin.³⁶ And now therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, of which you say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword and by famine and by pestilence;³⁷ Behold, I will gather them from all the lands to which I have driven them in my anger and in my fury and great wrath; and I will bring them back to this country, and I will cause them to dwell in safety;³⁸ And they shall be my people, and I will be their God;³⁹ And I will give them a new heart and a new spirit, that they may worship before me for ever; and it shall be good to them and to their children after them:⁴⁰ And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good: and I will put my reverence in their hearts, that they may not go astray from me.⁴¹ Yea, I will cause them to rejoice, and good shall come to them, and I will plant them in this land in truth, with my whole heart and with my whole soul.⁴² For thus says the LORD: Just as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring them all the good that I promise them.⁴³ And fields shall be bought in this land, of which you say, It is desolate, without man and beast; and it is delivered into the hand of the Chaldeans.⁴⁴ Men shall buy fields for money, and write deeds and seal them and call witnesses in the land of Benjamin and in the places about Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah and in the cities of the mountains and in the cities of the valleys and in the cities of the south; for I will bring them back from their captivity, says the LORD.