¹ 巴比伦王尼布甲尼撒率领他的全军和地上属他的各国各邦，攻打耶路撒冷和属耶路撒冷所有的城邑。那时，耶和华的话临到耶利米说：

² 耶和华─以色列的神说，你去告诉犹大王西底家，耶和华如此说：我要将这城交付巴比伦王的手，他必用火焚烧。

³ 你必不能逃脱他的手，定被拿住，交在他的手中。你的眼要见巴比伦王的眼，他要口对口和你说话，你也必到巴比伦去。

⁴ 犹大王西底家啊，你还要听耶和华的话。耶和华论到你如此说：你必不被刀剑杀死，

⁵ 你必平安而死，人必为你焚烧物件，好像为你列祖，就是在你以前的先王焚烧一般。人必为你举哀说：哀哉！我主啊。耶和华说：这话是我说的。

⁶ 於是，先知耶利米在耶路撒冷将这一切话告诉犹大王西底家。

⁷ 那时，巴比伦王的军队正攻打耶路撒冷，又攻打犹大所剩下的城邑，就是拉吉和亚西加。原来犹大的坚固城只剩下这两座。

⁸ 西底家王与耶路撒冷的众民立约，要向他们宣告自由，叫各人任他希伯来的仆人和婢女自由出去，谁也不可使他的一个犹大弟兄作奴仆。（此後，有耶和华的话临到耶利米。）

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¹⁰ 所有立约的首领和众民就任他的仆人婢女自由出去，谁也不再叫他们作奴仆。大家都顺从，将他们释放了；

¹¹ 後来却又反悔，叫所任去自由的仆人婢女回来，勉强他们仍为仆婢。

¹² 因此耶和华的话临到耶利米说：

¹³ 耶和华─以色列的神如此说：我将你们的列祖从埃及地为奴之家领出来的时候，与他们立约说：

¹⁴ 你的一个希伯来弟兄若卖给你，服事你六年，到第七年你们各人就要任他自由出去。只是你们列祖不听从我，也不侧耳而听。

¹⁵ 如今你们回转，行我眼中看为正的事，各人向邻舍宣告自由，并且在称为我名下的殿中、在我面前立约。

¹⁶ 你们却又反悔，亵渎我的名，各人叫所任去随意自由的仆人婢女回来，勉强他们仍为仆婢。

¹⁷ 所以耶和华如此说：你们没有听从我，各人向弟兄邻舍宣告自由。看哪！我向你们宣告一样自由，就是使你们自由於刀剑、饥荒、瘟疫之下，并且使你们在天下万国中抛来抛去。这是耶和华说的。

¹⁸ 犹大的首领、耶路撒冷的首领、太监、祭司，和国中的众民曾将牛犊劈开，分成两半，从其中经过，在我面前立约。後来又违背我的约，不遵行这约上的话。

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²⁰ 我必将他们交在仇敌和寻索其命的人手中；他们的尸首必给空中的飞鸟和地上的野兽作食物。

²¹ 并且我必将犹大王西底家和他的首领交在他们仇敌和寻索其命的人，与那暂离你们而去巴比伦王军队的手中。

²² 耶和华说：我必吩咐他们回到这城，攻打这城，将城攻取，用火焚烧。我也要使犹大的城邑变为荒场，无人居住。

¹ Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says Yahweh.

² Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people: You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings, says Yahweh.

³ I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and multiply.

⁴ I will set up shepherds over them, who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking, says Yahweh.

⁵ Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

⁶ In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name by which he shall be called: Yahweh our righteousness.

⁷ Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that they shall no more say, As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

⁸ but, As Yahweh lives, who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries where I had driven them. They shall dwell in their own land.

⁹ Concerning the prophets. My heart within me is broken, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of Yahweh, and because of his holy words.

¹⁰ For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right;

¹¹ for both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in my house have I found their wickedness, says Yahweh.

¹² Therefore their way shall be to them as slippery places in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation, says Yahweh.

¹³ I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.

¹⁴ In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none does return from his wickedness: they are all of them become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.

¹⁵ Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem is ungodliness gone forth into all the land.

¹⁶ Thus says Yahweh of Armies, Don't listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you: they teach you vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Yahweh.

¹⁷ They say continually to those who despise me, Yahweh has said, You shall have peace; and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, No evil shall come on you.

¹⁸ For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he should perceive and hear his word? who has marked my word, and heard it?

¹⁹ Behold, the storm of Yahweh, [even his] wrath, is gone forth, yes, a whirling storm: it shall burst on the head of the wicked.

²⁰ The anger of Yahweh shall not return, until he has executed, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand it perfectly.

²¹ I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I didn't speak to them, yet they prophesied.

²² But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

²³ Am I a God at hand, says Yahweh, and not a God afar off?

²⁴ Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? says Yahweh. Don't I fill heaven and earth? says Yahweh.

²⁵ I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

²⁶ How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart?

²⁷ who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name for Baal.

²⁸ The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat? says Yahweh.

²⁹ Isn't my word like fire? says Yahweh; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

³⁰ Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, who steal my words everyone from his neighbor.

³¹ Behold, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, who use their tongues, and say, He says.

³² Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says Yahweh, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting: yet I didn't send them, nor commanded them; neither do they profit this people at all, says Yahweh.

³³ When this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, What is the burden of Yahweh? Then you shall tell them, What burden! I will cast you off, says Yahweh.

³⁴ As for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, who shall say, The burden of Yahweh, I will even punish that man and his house.

³⁵ You shall say everyone to his neighbor, and everyone to his brother, What has Yahweh answered? and, What has Yahweh spoken?

³⁶ You shall mention the burden of Yahweh no more: for every man's own word shall be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, of Yahweh of Armies our God.

³⁷ You shall say to the prophet, What has Yahweh answered you? and, What has Yahweh spoken?

³⁸ But if you say, The burden of Yahweh; therefore thus says Yahweh: Because you say this word, The burden of Yahweh, and I have sent to you, saying, You shall not say, The burden of Yahweh;

³⁹ therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast you off, and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, away from my presence:

⁴⁰ and I will bring an everlasting reproach on you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.