&#8216;Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, will come to you soon. He will say to you, &#8220;Buy my field at Anathoth because you are entitled<n id="1" /> as my closest relative to buy it.&#8221;&#8217;<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">So Jeremiah summoned Baruch son of Neriah. Then Jeremiah dictated to Baruch everything the <sc>Lordsc> had told him to say and Baruch wrote it all down in a scroll.<n id="1" />

All the people living in Jerusalem<n id="1" /> and all the people who came into Jerusalem from the towns of Judah came to observe a fast before the <sc>Lordsc>. The fast took place in the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah.<n id="2" />

At that time Baruch went into the temple of the <sc>Lordsc>. He stood in the entrance of the room of Gemariah the son of Shaphan who had been the royal secretary.<n id="1" /> That room was in the upper court<n id="2" /> near the entrance of the New Gate.<n id="3" /> There, where all the people could hear him, he read from the scroll what Jeremiah had said.<n id="4" />p>

Then Jeremiah got another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah. As Jeremiah dictated, Baruch wrote on this scroll everything that had been on the scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah burned in the fire. They also added on this scroll several other messages of the same kind.<n id="1" />p>

So the officials<n id="1" /> took Jeremiah and put him in the cistern<n id="2" /> of Malkijah, one of the royal princes,<n id="3" /> that was in the courtyard of the guardhouse. There was no water in the cistern, only mud. So when they lowered Jeremiah into the cistern with ropes he sank in the mud.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;All your wives and your children will be turned over to the Babylonians.<n id="1" /> You yourself will not escape from them but will be captured by the<n id="2" /> king of Babylon. This city will be burned down.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">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<n id="1" /> 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.<n id="2" />

Now the cistern where Ishmael threw all the dead bodies of those he had killed was a large one<n id="1" /> that King Asa had constructed as part of his defenses against King Baasha of Israel.<n id="2" /> Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with dead bodies.<n id="3" />

Instead Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers led off all the Judean remnant who had come back to live in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been scattered.<n id="1" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">He spoke about Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt which was encamped along the Euphrates River at Carchemish. Now this was the army that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated in the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling<n id="1" /> over Judah.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Because you did that,p> <p class="poetry">I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm that<n id="1" /> a time is comingp> <p class="poetry">when I will make Rabbah, the capital city of Ammon,p> <p class="poetry">hear the sound of the battle cry.p> <p class="poetry">It will become a mound covered with ruins.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Its villages will be burned to the ground.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Then Israel will take back its landp> <p class="poetry">from those who took their land from them.p> <p class="poetry">I, the Lord, affirm it!<n id="4" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> spoke about Kedar<n id="1" /> and the kingdoms of Hazor<n id="2" /> that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered.p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Army of Babylon,<n id="3" /> go and attack Kedar.p> <p class="poetry">Lay waste those who live in the eastern desert.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">I will destroy Babylonia just like I didp> <p class="poetry">Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns.p> <p class="poetry">No one will live there.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">No human being will settle in it,&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">says the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="2" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> showed me two baskets of figs sitting before his temple. This happened after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon deported Jehoiakim&#8217;s son, King Jeconiah of Judah. He deported him and the leaders of Judah, along with the craftsmen and metal workers, and took them to Babylon.<n id="1" />

Now it happened just as the <sc>Lordsc> had said! My cousin Hanamel<n id="1" /> came to me in the courtyard of the guardhouse. He said to me, &#8216;Buy my field which is at Anathoth in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. Buy it for yourself since you are entitled as my closest relative to take possession of it for yourself.&#8217; When this happened, I recognized that the <sc>Lordsc> had indeed spoken to me.