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¹ The words of Yirmeyahu the son of Hilkiyah, of the Kohanim who were in `Anatot in the land of Binyamin: ² to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Yoshiyahu the son of Amon, king of Yehudah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. ³ It came also in the days of Yehoiakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Yehudah, to the end of the eleventh year of Tzidkiyahu, the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Yehudah, to the carrying away of Yerushalayim captive in the fifth month.

⁴ Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ⁵ Before I formed you in the belly I knew you, and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations. ⁶ Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I don't know how to speak; for I am a child. ⁷ But the LORD said to me, Don't say, I am a child; for to whoever I shall send you, you shall go, and whatever I shall command you, you shall speak. ⁸ Don't be afraid because of them; for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD. ⁹ Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth: ¹⁰ behold, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.

¹¹ Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Yirmeyahu, what see you? I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. ¹² Then said the LORD to me, You have well seen: for I watch over my word to perform it. ¹³ The word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying, What see you? I said, I see a boiling caldron; and the face of it is from the north. ¹⁴ Then the LORD said to me, Out of the north evil shall break forth on all the inhabitants of the land. ¹⁵ For, behold, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set everyone his throne at the entrance of the gates of Yerushalayim, and against all the walls of it round about, and against all the cities of Yehudah. ¹⁶ I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands. ¹⁷ You therefore gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command you: don't be dismayed at them, lest I dismay you before them. ¹⁸ For, behold, I have made you this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Yehudah, against the princes of it, against the Kohanim of it, and against the people of the land. ¹⁹ They shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you: for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you.