So the Lord says, ‘I will most assuredly remove ¹  you from the face of the earth. You will die this very year because you have counseled rebellion against the Lord.’” ² 

I have indeed ¹  heard the people of Israel ²  say mournfully, ‘We were like a calf untrained to the yoke. ³  You disciplined us and we learned from it. ⁴  Let us come back to you and we will do so, ⁵  for you are the Lord our God.

Then the officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah must go and hide. You must not let anyone know where you are.” ¹ 

But I will rescue you when it happens. ¹  I, the Lord, affirm it! ²  You will not be handed over to those whom you fear. ³ 

They will eat up your crops and your food. They will kill off ¹  your sons and your daughters. They will eat up your sheep and your cattle. They will destroy your vines and your fig trees. ²  Their weapons will batter down ³  the fortified cities you trust in.

You, Pashhur, and all your household ¹  will go into exile in Babylon. You will die there and you will be buried there. The same thing will happen to all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.’” ² 

“‘For the Lord says concerning the palace of the king of Judah, “This place looks like a veritable forest of Gilead to me. It is like the wooded heights of Lebanon in my eyes. But I swear that I will make it like a wilderness whose towns have all been deserted. ¹ 

The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I answered, “I see figs. The good ones look very good. But the bad ones look very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

that the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹  has a message for him. ²  Tell him, ³  ‘On your own initiative ⁴  you sent a letter ⁵  to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah ⁶  and to all the other priests and to all the people in Jerusalem. ⁷  In your letter you said to Zephaniah, ⁸ 

For King Zedekiah ¹  had confined Jeremiah there after he had reproved him for prophesying as he did. He had asked Jeremiah, “Why do you keep prophesying these things? Why do you keep saying that the Lord says, ‘I will hand this city over to the king of Babylon? I will let him capture it. ² 

‘Oh, Lord God, ¹  you did indeed ²  make heaven and earth by your mighty power and great strength. ³  Nothing is too hard for you!

But when they came in and took possession of it, they did not obey you or live as you had instructed them. They did not do anything that you commanded them to do. ¹  So you brought all this disaster on them.

So you go there the next time all the people of Judah come in from their towns to fast ¹  in the Lord’s temple. Read out loud where all of them can hear you what I told you the Lord said, which you wrote in the scroll. ² 

Tell King Jehoiakim of Judah, ‘The Lord says, “You burned the scroll. You asked ¹  Jeremiah, ‘How dare you write in this scroll that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land and wipe out all the people and animals on it?’” ² 

But he only got as far as the Benjamin Gate. ¹  There an officer in charge of the guards named Irijah, ²  who was the son of Shelemiah and the grandson of Hananiah, stopped him. He seized Jeremiah and said, ³  “You are deserting to the Babylonians!” ⁴ 

Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “The Lord, the God who rules over all, the God of Israel, ¹  says, ‘You must surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon. If you do, your life will be spared ²  and this city will not be burned down. Indeed, you and your whole family will be spared.

But Gedaliah son of Ahikam said to Johanan son of Kareah, “Do not do that ¹  because what you are saying about Ishmael is not true.” ² 

Then Azariah ¹  son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and other arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are telling a lie! The Lord our God did not send you to tell us, ‘You must not go to Egypt and settle there.’

I, the Lord, tell ¹  you not to be afraid, you descendants of Jacob, my servant, for I am with you. Though I completely destroy all the nations where I scatter you, I will not completely destroy you. I will indeed discipline you but only in due measure. I will not allow you to go entirely unpunished.” ² 

Then say, ‘O Lord, you have announced that you will destroy this place so that no people or animals live in it any longer. Certainly it will lie desolate forever!’