¹ In the tenth year, in the tenth [month], on the twelfth of the month, the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

² Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against the whole of Egypt;

³ speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which saith, My river is mine own, and I made it for myself.

⁴ And I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales;

⁵ and I will cast thee into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open field; thou shalt not be brought together nor gathered: I will give thee for meat to the beasts of the earth and to the fowl of the heavens.

⁶ And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I [am] Jehovah, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.

⁷ When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst give way and rend all their shoulder; and when they leaned upon thee, thou didst break, and didst make all their loins to tremble.

⁸ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast from thee.

⁹ And the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste: and they shall know that I [am] Jehovah, because he saith, The river is mine, and I made it.

¹⁰ Therefore behold, I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt deserts of wasteness and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, even unto the border of Ethiopia.

¹¹ No foot of man shall pass through it, nor shall foot of beast pass through it, nor shall it be inhabited, forty years.

¹² And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of the countries that are desolated, and her cities shall be, in the midst of the cities that are laid waste, a desolation forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.

¹³ Yet thus saith the Lord Jehovah: At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the peoples whither they were scattered;

¹⁴ and I will turn again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return to the land of Pathros, into the land of their birth, and they shall there be a base kingdom.

¹⁵ It shall be the basest of kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations; and I will diminish them, so that they shall no more rule over the nations.

¹⁶ And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing iniquity to remembrance, when they turn after them: and they shall know that I [am] the Lord Jehovah.

¹⁷ And it came to pass in the twenty-seventh year, in the first [month], on the first of the month, [that] the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

¹⁸ Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to do hard service against Tyre; every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he from Tyre no wages, nor his army, for the service that he had served against it.

¹⁹ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall carry away her multitude, and seize her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army.

²⁰ I have given him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord Jehovah.

²¹ In that day will I cause the horn of the house of Israel to bud forth, and I will give thee the opening of the mouth in the midst of them: and they shall know that I [am] Jehovah.

¹ In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, came this word from Jehovah, saying,

² Thus saith Jehovah: Stand in the court of Jehovah's house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in Jehovah's house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them: diminish not a word.

³ Peradventure they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil which I purpose to do unto them because of the wickedness of their doings.

⁴ And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah: If ye will not hearken unto me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you,

⁵ to hearken unto the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent unto you, even rising early and sending [them], but ye have not hearkened,

⁶ -- then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.

⁷ And the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of Jehovah.

⁸ And it came to pass when Jeremiah had ended speaking all that Jehovah had commanded [him] to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, Thou shalt certainly die.

⁹ Why hast thou prophesied in the name of Jehovah, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of Jehovah.

¹⁰ And the princes of Judah heard these things; and they went up from the king's house unto the house of Jehovah, and sat in the entry of the new gate of Jehovah.

¹¹ And the priests and the prophets spoke unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die, for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears.

¹² And Jeremiah spoke to all the princes and to all the people, saying, Jehovah sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that ye have heard.

¹³ And now, amend your ways and your doings, and hearken to the voice of Jehovah your God; and Jehovah will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.

¹⁴ But as for me, behold, I am in your hand; do unto me as seemeth good and right in your eyes:

¹⁵ only know for certain that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof; for of a truth Jehovah hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears.

¹⁶ And the princes and all the people said unto the priests and to the prophets, This man is not worthy to die; for he hath spoken to us in the name of Jehovah our God.

¹⁷ And there rose up certain of the elders of the land and spoke to all the congregation of the people, saying,

¹⁸ Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Zion shall be ploughed [as] a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.

¹⁹ Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? Did he not fear Jehovah, and supplicate Jehovah, and Jehovah repented him of the evil that he had pronounced against them? And we should be doing a great evil against our souls.

²⁰ And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of Jehovah, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjath-jearim: and he prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah;

²¹ and Jehoiakim the king, and all his mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words, and the king sought to put him to death; but Urijah heard it, and he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt.

²² And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and men with him, into Egypt;

²³ and they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him to Jehoiakim the king; and he slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the children of the people.

²⁴ -- Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

⁸ For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.