But now, Jeremiah, today I will set you free ¹  from the chains on your wrists. If you would like to come to Babylon with me, come along and I will take care of you. ²  But if you prefer not to come to Babylon with me, you are not required to do so. ³  You are free to go anywhere in the land you want to go. ⁴  Go wherever you choose.” ⁵ 

But there were ten men among them who said ¹  to Ishmael, “Do not kill us. For we will give you the stores of wheat, barley, olive oil, and honey we have hidden in a field. ²  So he spared their lives and did not kill ³  them along with the rest. ⁴ 

Then Ishmael took captive all the people who were still left alive in Mizpah. This included the royal princesses ¹  and all the rest of the people in Mizpah that Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, had put under the authority of Gedaliah son of Ahikam. Ishmael son of Nethaniah took all these people captive and set out to cross over to the Ammonites.

But ¹  listen to what the Lord has to say, all you people of Judah who are living in the land of Egypt. The Lord says, ‘I hereby swear by my own great name that none of the people of Judah who are living anywhere in Egypt will ever again invoke my name in their oaths! Never again will any of them use it in an oath saying, “As surely as the Lord God lives….” ² 

¹ “You descendants of Jacob, my servants, ²  do not be afraid; do not be terrified, people of Israel. For I will rescue you and your descendants from the faraway lands where you are captives. ³  The descendants of Jacob will return to their land and enjoy peace. They will be secure and no one will terrify them.

He said to me, “Do you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in the chamber of his idolatrous images? ¹  For they think, ‘The Lord does not see us! The Lord has abandoned the land!’”

He said to me, “Do you see, son of man? Is it a trivial thing that the house of Judah commits these abominations they are practicing here? For they have filled the land with violence and provoked me to anger still further. Look, they are putting the branch to their nose! ¹ 

He said to me, “The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of murder, and the city is full of corruption, ¹  for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’ ² 

“Son of man, your brothers, ¹  your relatives, ²  and the whole house of Israel, all of them are those to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem ³  have said, ‘They have gone ⁴  far away from the Lord; to us this land has been given as a possession.’

“Therefore say: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Although I have removed them far away among the nations and have dispersed them among the countries, I have been a little ¹  sanctuary for them among the lands where they have gone.’

and say to them: “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On the day I chose Israel I swore ¹  to the descendants ²  of the house of Jacob and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt. I swore ³  to them, “I am the Lord your God.”

and say to the scrub land of the Negev, ‘Hear the word of the Lord: This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look here, ¹  I am about to start a fire in you, ²  and it will devour every green tree and every dry tree in you. The flaming fire will not be extinguished, and the whole surface of the ground from the Negev to the north will be scorched by it.

So take note, ¹  I am about to make you slaves of ²  the tribes ³  of the east. They will make camps among you and pitch their tents among you. They will eat your fruit and drink your milk.

“Son of man, the ones living in these ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land, but we are many; surely the land has been given to us for a possession.’ ¹ 

“This is what you must say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, those living in the ruins will die ¹  by the sword, those in the open field I will give to the wild beasts for food, and those who are in the strongholds and caves will die of disease.

therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Surely I have spoken in the fire of my zeal against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who with great joy and utter contempt have made my land their property and prey, because of its pasture.’

I will increase the number of people and animals on you; they will increase and be fruitful. ¹  I will cause you to be inhabited as in ancient times, and will do more good for you than at the beginning of your history. ²  Then you will know that I am the Lord.

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake that I am about to act, O house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy reputation ¹  which you profaned among the nations where you went.

After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come to a land restored from the ravages of war, ¹  with many peoples gathered on the mountains of Israel that had long been in ruins. Its people ²  were brought out from the peoples, and all of them will be living securely.

to loot and plunder, to attack ¹  the inhabited ruins and the people gathered from the nations, who are acquiring cattle and goods, who live at the center ²  of the earth.”