Jeremiah 39

¹In the ninth year, on the tenth day of the tenth month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²“Son of man, write down today’s date, for on this very day the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem.

⁴So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it.

⁵And the city was kept under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

¹⁹“This is what the Lord of Hosts says: The fasts of the fourth, the fifth, the seventh, and the tenth months will become times of joy and gladness, cheerful feasts for the house of Judah. Therefore you are to love both truth and peace.”

¹So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it.

²And the city was kept under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

⁶By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.

⁷Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah,

¹⁰Go up through her vineyards and ravage them, but do not finish them off. Strip off her branches, for they do not belong to the Lord.

¹²I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I will collect the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in the midst of its pasture—a noisy throng.

¹³One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate, and go out by it. Their King will pass through before them, the Lord as their leader.

³By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.

⁴Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah,

¹⁰On that day,” declares the Lord, “a cry will go up from the Fish Gate, a wail from the Second District, and a loud crashing from the hills.

²¹In the twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth day of the tenth month, a fugitive from Jerusalem came to me and reported, “The city has been taken!”

⁴this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will turn against you the weapons of war in your hands, with which you are fighting the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the wall, and I will assemble their forces in the center of this city.

¹⁷Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the Lord God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you indeed surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then you will live, this city will not be burned down, and you and your household will survive.

¹³So Nebuzaradan captain of the guard, Nebushazban the Rabsaris, Nergal-sharezer the Rabmag, and all the captains of the king of Babylon

¹⁵For I am about to summon all the clans and kingdoms of the north,” declares the Lord. “Their kings will come and set up their thrones at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem. They will attack all her surrounding walls and all the other cities of Judah.

³⁰The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima,

⁵Then Hezekiah worked resolutely to rebuild all the broken sections of the wall and to raise up towers on it. He also built an outer wall and reinforced the supporting terraces of the City of David, and he produced an abundance of weapons and shields.

¹⁴Escape will fail the swift, the strong will not prevail by his strength, and the mighty will not save his life.

²⁴They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.

²⁵Outside, the sword will take their children, and inside, terror will strike the young man and the young woman, the infant and the gray-haired man.

¹²And at dusk the prince among them will lift his bags to his shoulder and go out. They will dig through the wall to bring him out. He will cover his face so he cannot see the land.

²⁵The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

¹⁷And I will set My face against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one pursues you.

³³And Pharaoh Neco imprisoned Jehoahaz at Riblah in the land of Hamath so that he could not reign in Jerusalem, and he imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

¹⁰On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they kept the Passover.

²³All your wives and children will be brought out to the Chaldeans. And you yourself will not escape their grasp, for you will be seized by the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned down.”

¹³About 40,000 troops armed for battle crossed over before the Lord into the plains of Jericho.

¹⁸But if you do not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans. They will burn it down, and you yourself will not escape their grasp.’”

²⁶Nebuzaradan captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

²⁷There at Riblah in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death. So Judah was taken into exile, away from its own land.

¹⁰There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the officials of Judah.

⁷‘After that,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will hand over Zedekiah king of Judah, his officers, and the people in this city who survive the plague and sword and famine, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to their enemies who seek their lives. He will put them to the sword; he will not spare them or show pity or compassion.’

³⁴You will be driven mad by the sights you see.

⁷And they slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.

¹⁹The officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf,

²⁰I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who seek their lives. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.

⁸But like the bad figs, so bad they cannot be eaten,’ says the Lord, ‘so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem—those remaining in this land and those living in the land of Egypt.

⁹I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.

¹³But I will spread My net over him, and he will be caught in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans; yet he will not see it, and there he will die.

⁴Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape from the hands of the Chaldeans, but he will surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye.

⁵He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, where he will stay until I attend to him, declares the Lord. If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not succeed.’”

²¹Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.

⁷And they slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.

¹¹Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon, where he kept him in custody until his dying day.

¹⁰Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and chains,

¹¹because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High.

³And they told me, “The remnant who survived the exile are there in the province, in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

¹⁰For I have set My face against this city to bring disaster and not good, declares the Lord. It will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, who will destroy it with fire.’

¹⁸But if you do not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans. They will burn it down, and you yourself will not escape their grasp.’”

⁹He burned down the house of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.

¹⁰And the whole army of the Chaldeans under the captain of the guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

¹²Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.

¹³He burned down the house of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.

¹⁴And the whole army of the Chaldeans under the captain of the guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem.

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after Nebuzaradan captain of the guard had released him at Ramah, having found him bound in chains among all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were being exiled to Babylon.

³⁶Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

²⁰Nebuzaradan captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

¹⁸For this is what the Lord says: “Behold, at this time I will sling out the inhabitants of the land and bring distress upon them so that they may be captured.”

¹¹Then Nebuzaradan captain of the guard carried into exile the people who remained in the city, along with the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon and the rest of the population.

²⁶Nebuzaradan captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

¹²But the captain of the guard left behind some of the poorest of the land to tend the vineyards and fields.

⁷When all the commanders and men of the armies in the field heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam over the land and that he had put him in charge of the men, women, and children who were the poorest of the land and had not been exiled to Babylon,

¹⁶But Nebuzaradan captain of the guard left behind some of the poorest of the land to tend the vineyards and fields.

²⁴“Son of man, those living in the 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 as a possession.’

²³He ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard, but to allow him some freedom and permit his friends to minister to his needs.

²¹I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.”

²But he and his officers and the people of the land refused to obey the words that the Lord had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet.

¹⁹He will rescue you from six calamities; no harm will touch you in seven.

¹¹The Lord said: “Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose; surely I will intercede with your enemy in your time of trouble, in your time of distress.

⁷When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even the man’s enemies live at peace with him.

¹⁴He let no man oppress them; He rebuked kings on their behalf:

¹⁵“Do not touch My anointed ones! Do no harm to My prophets!”

⁴But now, behold, I am freeing you today from the chains that were on your wrists. If it pleases you to come with me to Babylon, then come, and I will take care of you. But if it seems wrong to you to come with me to Babylon, go no farther. Look, the whole land is before you. Wherever it seems good and right to you, go there.”

¹The king’s heart is a waterway in the hand of the Lord; He directs it where He pleases.

¹⁰and rescued him from all his troubles. He granted Joseph favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and all his household.

¹²For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

¹³Who can harm you if you are zealous for what is good?

³Then all the officials of the king of Babylon entered and sat in the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-sarsekim the Rabsaris, Nergal-sharezer the Rabmag, and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.

⁹Then Nebuzaradan captain of the guard carried away to Babylon the remnant of the people who had remained in the city, along with the deserters who had defected to him.

²⁸And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured.

¹²and commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the servant of the king:

²⁴Nevertheless, Ahikam son of Shaphan supported Jeremiah, so he was not handed over to the people to be put to death.

²²Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, over the people he had left behind in the land of Judah.

²³When all the commanders of the armies and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah—Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite, as well as their men.

¹⁹until his prediction came true and the word of the Lord proved him right.

²¹So King Zedekiah gave orders for Jeremiah to be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread daily from the street of the bakers, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.

⁹for which I suffer to the extent of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God cannot be chained!

¹⁴had Jeremiah brought from the courtyard of the guard, and they turned him over to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him home. So Jeremiah remained among his own people.

²¹So King Zedekiah gave orders for Jeremiah to be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread daily from the street of the bakers, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.

¹In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord:

²“Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you during the reign of Josiah until today.

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

²At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard, which was in the palace of the king of Judah.

¹²You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.

⁶But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as the Lord of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.’”

¹⁴Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know with all your heart and soul that not one of the good promises the Lord your God made to you has failed. Everything was fulfilled for you; not one promise has failed.

¹⁵But just as every good thing the Lord your God promised you has come to pass, likewise the Lord will bring upon you the calamity He has threatened, until He has destroyed you from this good land He has given you.

²⁰Now there was another man prophesying in the name of the Lord, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land the same things that Jeremiah did.

²⁸Those who escape the sword will return from Egypt to Judah, few in number, and the whole remnant of Judah who went to dwell in the land of Egypt will know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs!

²⁹This will be a sign to you that I will punish you in this place, declares the Lord, so that you may know that My threats of harm against you will surely stand.

¹¹and you are to proclaim to them that this is what the Lord of Hosts says: I will shatter this nation and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.

¹²This is what I will do to this place and to its residents, declares the Lord. I will make this city like Topheth.

¹For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Blessed is the one who cares for the poor; the Lord will deliver him in the day of trouble.

²The Lord will protect and preserve him; He will bless him in the land and refuse to give him over to the will of his foes.

¹⁵Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

¹⁴“Because he loves Me, I will deliver him; because he knows My name, I will protect him.

¹⁵When he calls out to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.

¹⁹They will fight against you but will never overcome you, since I am with you to deliver you,” declares the Lord.

¹⁴David answered Gad, “I am deeply distressed. Please, let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”

⁹“My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have dropped him into the cistern, where he will starve to death, for there is no more bread in the city.”

²²The Lord redeems His servants, and none who take refuge in Him will be condemned.

²“This is what the Lord says: Whoever stays in this city will die by sword and famine and plague, but whoever surrenders to the Chaldeans will live; he will retain his life like a spoil of war, and he will live.

⁹Whoever stays in this city will die by sword and famine and plague, but whoever goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who besiege you will live; he will retain his life like a spoil of war.

¹²in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, would be for the praise of His glory.

¹²O Lord of Hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in You!

²⁰And because they cried out to God in battle, they were helped against their enemies, and the Hagrites and all their allies were delivered into their hands. Because they put their trust in God, He answered their prayers.