Now some of the officers of the Judean army and their troops had been hiding in the countryside. They heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam to govern the country. They also heard that he had been put in charge over the men, women, and children from the poorer classes of the land who had not been carried off into exile in Babylon.

Recently, however, you yourselves showed a change of heart and did what is pleasing to me. You granted your fellow countrymen their freedom and you made a covenant to that effect in my presence in the house that I have claimed for my own.

In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, Evil-Merodach, in the first year of his reign, pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison.

There is still medicinal ointment available in Gilead! There is still a physician there! Why then have my dear people not been restored to health?

Now Pashhur son of Immer heard Jeremiah prophesy these things. He was the priest who was chief of security in the Lord’s temple.

For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, “Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”’

But he left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing. He gave them fields and vineyards at that time.

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.

And all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon will use them as examples when they put a curse on anyone. They will say, “May the Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab whom the king of Babylon roasted to death in the fire!”

But the Babylonian army chased after them. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho and captured him. They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Riblah in the territory of Hamath and Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him there.

I will kill everything living in Jerusalem, people and animals alike! They will die from terrible diseases.

The land of Judah will be inhabited by people who live in its towns as well as by farmers and shepherds with their flocks.

I took both copies of the deed of purchase and gave them to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah. I gave them to him in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, the witnesses who had signed the deed of purchase, and all the Judeans who were housed in the courtyard of the guardhouse.

All the people living in Jerusalem and all the people who came into Jerusalem from the towns of Judah came to observe a fast before the Lord. The fast took place in the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah.

This is your fate, the destiny to which I have appointed you, because you have forgotten me and have trusted in false gods.

I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you know nothing about. For my anger is like a fire that will burn against you.”

The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has fully carried out his intended purposes. In days to come you will come to understand this.

In the tenth year that Zedekiah was ruling over Judah the Lord spoke to Jeremiah. That was the same as the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

So now be very sure of this: You will die from war, starvation, or disease in the place where you want to go and live.”

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