The Lord spoke to Jeremiah in the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah.

For I solemnly swear,” says the Lord, “that Bozrah will become a pile of ruins. It will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example to be used in curses. All the towns around it will lie in ruins forever.”

א (Alef)Alas! The city once full of people now sits all alone! The prominent lady among the nations has become a widow! The princess who once ruled the provinces has become a forced laborer!

This city will not be a cooking pot for you, and you will not be meat within it; I will judge you at the border of Israel.

so that they may follow my statutes and observe my regulations and carry them out. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.

“Son of man, of all the woody branches among the trees of the forest, what happens to the wood of the vine?

And with all your abominable practices and prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, kicking around in your blood.

You were different from other prostitutes because no one solicited you. When you gave payment and no payment was given to you, you became the opposite!

A fire has gone out from its branch; it has consumed its shoot and its fruit. No strong branch was left in it, nor a scepter to rule.’ This is a lament song, and has become a lament song.”

You will become fuel for the fire – your blood will stain the middle of the land; you will no longer be remembered, for I, the Lord, have spoken.’”

“Son of man, the house of Israel has become slag to me. All of them are like bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the furnace; they are the worthless slag of silver.

She will be a place where fishing nets are spread, surrounded by the sea. For I have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations,

The elders of Gebal and her skilled men were within you, mending cracks; all the ships of the sea and their mariners were within you to trade for your merchandise.

In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, the word of the Lord came to me:

“‘You said, “These two nations, these two lands will be mine, and we will possess them,” – although the Lord was there –

Linen turbans will be on their heads and linen undergarments will be around their waists; they must not bind themselves with anything that causes sweat.

It will be a holy portion of the land; it will be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary who approach the Lord to minister to him. It will be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary.

The dry and liquid measures will be the same, the bath will contain a tenth of a homer, and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer will be the standard measure.

But if he gives a gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, it will be his until the year of liberty; then it will revert to the prince. His inheritance will only remain with his sons.

The property of the Levites and of the city will be in the middle of that which belongs to the prince. The portion between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin will be for the prince.