I will take delight in doing good to them. I will faithfully and wholeheartedly plant them firmly in the land.’

In those days and at that time I will raise up for them a righteous descendant of David. “‘He will do what is just and right in the land.

Jeremiah started to leave Jerusalem to go to the territory of Benjamin. He wanted to make sure he got his share of the property that was being divided up among his family there.

“You must not disobey the Lord your God by saying, ‘We will not stay in this land.’

They went on to Egypt because they refused to obey the Lord, and came to Tahpanhes.

I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt with war, starvation, and disease just as I punished Jerusalem.

“Judgment will come on the cities on the high plain: on Holon, Jahzah, and Mephaath,

on Kerioth and Bozrah. It will come on all the towns of Moab, both far and near.

The people of the earth will quake when they hear of their downfall. Their cries of anguish will be heard all the way to the Gulf of Aqaba.

The Lord spoke concerning Babylon and the land of Babylonia through the prophet Jeremiah.

“People of Judah, get out of Babylon quickly! Leave the land of Babylonia! Be the first to depart! Be like the male goats that lead the herd.

Babylon hammered the whole world to pieces. But see how that ‘hammer’ has been broken and shattered! See what an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations!

A drought will come upon her land; her rivers and canals will be dried up. All of this will happen because her land is filled with idols. Her people act like madmen because of those idols they fear.

“Look! An army is about to come from the north. A mighty nation and many kings are stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth.

He is the one who by his power made the earth. He is the one who by his wisdom fixed the world in place, by his understanding he spread out the heavens.

“See how Babylon has been captured! See how the pride of the whole earth has been taken! See what an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations!

“Babylon must fall because of the Israelites she has killed, just as the earth’s mortally wounded fell because of Babylon.

By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city was so severe the residents had no food.

The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed at Riblah in the territory of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile away from its land.

I, the Lord, hereby promise to make you as strong as a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall. You will be able to stand up against all who live in the land, including the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and all the people of the land.