For this is what the Lord says, the one who created the sky – he is the true God, ¹  the one who formed the earth and made it; he established it, he did not create it without order, ²  he formed it to be inhabited – “I am the Lord, I have no peer.

Tell me! Present the evidence! ¹  Let them consult with one another! Who predicted this in the past? Who announced it beforehand? Was it not I, the Lord? I have no peer, there is no God but me, a God who vindicates and delivers; ²  there is none but me.

“The Lord says, ‘Those who stay in this city will die in battle or of starvation or disease. ¹  Those who leave the city and surrender to the Babylonians ²  will live. They will escape with their lives.’” ³ 

So these officials said to the king, “This man must be put to death. For he is demoralizing ¹  the soldiers who are left in the city as well as all the other people there by these things he is saying. ²  This ³  man is not seeking to help these people but is trying to harm them.” ⁴ 

So the officials ¹  took Jeremiah and put him in the cistern ²  of Malkijah, one of the royal princes, 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. ⁴ 

“Your royal Majesty, those men have been very wicked in all that they have done to the prophet Jeremiah. They have thrown him into a cistern and he is sure to die of starvation there because there is no food left in the city. ¹ 

So Ebed Melech took the men with him and went to a room under the treasure room in the palace. ¹  He got some worn-out clothes and old rags ²  from there and let them down by ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern.

Some time later ¹  Zedekiah sent and had Jeremiah brought to him at the third entrance ²  of the Lord’s temple. The king said to Jeremiah, “I would like to ask you a question. Do not hide anything from me when you answer.” ³ 

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.

All the women who are left in the royal palace of Judah will be led out to the officers of the king of Babylon. They will taunt you saying, ¹  ‘Your trusted friends misled you; they have gotten the best of you. Now that your feet are stuck in the mud, they have turned their backs on you.’ ² 

The officials may hear that I have talked with you. They may come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you. ¹  Do not hide anything from us. If you do, we will kill you.’ ² 

The prophet Jeremiah spoke to Baruch son of Neriah while he was writing down in a scroll the words that Jeremiah spoke to him. ¹  This happened in the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah. ² 

Are you looking for great things for yourself? Do not look for such things. For I, the Lord, affirm ¹  that I am about to bring disaster on all humanity. ²  But I will allow you to escape with your life ³  wherever you go.”’”

You are the daughter of your mother, who detested her husband and her sons, and you are the sister of your sisters who detested their husbands and their sons. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.

“‘When you allot the land as an inheritance, you will offer an allotment ¹  to the Lord, a holy portion from the land; the length will be eight and a quarter miles ²  and the width three and one-third miles. ³  This entire area will be holy. ⁴ 

It will be the duty of the prince to provide the burnt offerings, the grain offering, and the drink offering at festivals, on the new moons and Sabbaths, at all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel; he will provide the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel.

The priest will take some of the blood of the sin offering and place it on the doorpost of the temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the doorpost of the gate of the inner court.

You saw that a stone was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands; it smashed the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold into pieces. The great God has made known to the king what will occur in the future. ¹  The dream is certain, and its interpretation is reliable.”

This is what the Lord says: “The profit ¹  of Egypt and the revenue ²  of Ethiopia, along with the Sabeans, those tall men, will be brought to you ³  and become yours. They will walk behind you, coming along in chains. ⁴  They will bow down to you and pray to you: ⁵  ‘Truly God is with ⁶  you; he has no peer; ⁷  there is no other God!’”

“‘For the prince there will be land on both sides of the holy allotment and the allotted city, alongside the holy allotment and the allotted city, on the west side and on the east side; it will be comparable in length to one of the portions, from the west border to the east border