YARAM’YAHU    𐤉𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤄𐤅

JEREMIAH

CHAPTER 1

1  The words of Yaram'Yahu son of Khalaqa’Yahu, of the ka’ahn’ym (priests) who were in Anath'uth (Anath’ooth) in the land of Ban'yaman:

2 to whom the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came in the days of Ya'asha'Yahu son of Amun, king of Yahudah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

3 And it came in the days of Yahu'yaq'yam son of Ya'asha'Yahu, king of Yahudah, to the end of the eleventh year of Tsadaqa'Yahu, son of Ya'asha'Yahu, king of Yahudah, to the carrying away of Yaru'shalam captive in the fifth month.

4 Now the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came to me saying,

5 "Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you. Before you came forth out of the womb, I made you apart. I have appointed you a nab’ya (prophet) to the nations."

6 Then I said, "Ah, Sovereign 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am a youth.”

7 But 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) said to me, "Do not say, 'I am a youth,’ for to whoever I shall send you, you shall go, and whatever I shall command you, you shall speak.

8 Do not be afraid because of them, for I am with you to rescue you," declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

9 Then 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) put forth his hand, and touched my mouth, and 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) said to me, "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.

10 Behold, I have this day made you over the nations and over the reigns, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant."

11 Moreover the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came to me saying, "Yaram'Yahu, what do you see?" And I said, "I see a branch of an almond tree."

12 Then 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) said to me, "You have seen well, for I am watching over My Word to perform it."

13 And the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came to me a second time saying, "What do you see?" And I said, "I see a boiling caldron, and it is tipping away from the north."

14 Then 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) said to me, "Out of the north evil will break out on all the inhabitants of the land.

15 For behold, I will call all the families of the reigns of the north," says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), "and they shall come, and they shall each set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Yaru'shalam, and against all its walls all around, and against all the cities of Yahudah.

16 And I will utter My judgments against them touching all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken Me, and have burned incense to other idols, and worshiped the works of their own hands.

17 “And you, put your belt on your loins, arise, and speak to them all that I command you. Do not be dismayed at them, lest I dismay you before them.

18 For behold, I have made you this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Yahudah, against its princes, against its ka’ahn’ym (priests), and against the people of the land.

19 And they will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you, for I am with you," says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), "to rescue you."

CHAPTER 2

1 And the Word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came to me saying,

2 “Walk and cry in the ears of Yaru'shalam saying, 'Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), "I remember for you the kindness of your youth, the love of your weddings, how you went after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

3 Yashar'AL was made apart to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), the first fruits of His increase. All who devour him shall be held guilty. Evil shall come on them,"' says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)."

4 Hear the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), O house of Ya'aqab, and all the families of the house of Yashar'AL!

5 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), "What unrighteousness have your fathers found in Me, that they have gone far from Me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?

6 Neither did they say, 'Where is 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) who brought us up out of the land of Ma'tsara'ym, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that none passed through, and where no man abided?'

7 And I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat its fruit and its goodness, but when you entered, you defiled My land, and made My heritage an abomination.

8 The ka’ahn’ym (priests) did not say, 'Where is 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)?' and those who handle the Thurah did not know Me. And the rulers also transgressed against Me, and the nab’ya’ym (prophets) prophesied by Ba'al, and walked after that which does not profit.

9 "Therefore I will yet contend with you," says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), "and I will contend with your children's children.

10 For, pass over to the islands of Kath’ya’ym, and see, and send to Qadar, and consider diligently, and see if there has been such a thing.

11 Has a nation changed idols, which really are no mighty ones? But My people have changed their esteem for that which does not profit.

12 "Be astonished, O shama'ym, at this, and be horribly afraid. Be very desolate," says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

13 "For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and cut them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

14 Is Yashar'AL a servant? Is he a native-born? Why is he for plunder?

15 The young lions have roared at him and growled. They have made his land waste. His cities are burned up, without inhabitant.

16 Also the sons of Nap (Nahp) and Thakh’pana’khas have broken the crown of your head.

17 "Have you not procured this to yourself, in that you have forsaken 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Your ALUAH, when He led you by the way?

18 Now what have you to do in the way to Ma'tsara'ym, to drink the waters of the Sha’khur? Or what have you to do in the way to Ashur, to drink the waters of the River?

19 "Your own wickedness shall punish you, and your backsliding shall reprove you. Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter, that you have forsaken 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Your ALUAH, and that My fear is not in you," says the Sovereign, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts.

20 "For of old I broke your yoke, burst your bonds, and you said, 'I will not serve,' for on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed yourself, committing whoredom.

21 Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to Me?

22 For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before Me," says the Sovereign 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

23 "How can you say, 'I am not defiled. I have not gone after the Ba'al'ym'? See your way in the valley. Know what you have done, a swift dromedary traversing her ways,

24 a wild donkey used to the wilderness, that snuffs up the wind in her desire. When she is in heat, who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not weary themselves. In her month, they will find her.

25 "Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst. But you said, 'It is in vain. No, for I have loved strangers, and I will go after them.'

26 As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Yashar'AL ashamed: they, their kings, their princes, and their ka’ahn’ym (priests), and their nab’ya’ya (prophets),

27 who tell wood, ‘you are my father,' and a stone, ‘you have brought me out:' For they have turned their back to Me, and not their face, but in the time of their trouble they will say, 'Arise, and save us.'

28 "But where are your idols that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble: for according to the number of your cities are your idols, O Yahudah.

29 "Why will you contend with Me? You all have transgressed against Me," says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

30 “For vanity I have struck your children. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your nab’ya’ya (prophets), like a destroying lion.

31 O generation, consider the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH). Have I been a wilderness to Yashar'AL? Or a land of thick darkness? Why do My people say, 'We have broken loose. We will come to You no more?'

32 "Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? And My people have forgotten Me for days without number.

33 How well you prepare your way to seek love! Therefore you have taught even the wicked women your ways.

34 Also the blood of the beings of the innocent poor is found in your skirts. You did not find them breaking in, but it is because of all these.

35 "Yet you said, 'I am innocent. Surely His anger has turned away from me.' "Behold, I will judge you, because you say, 'I have not transgressed.'

36 Why do you go about so much to change your way? You will be ashamed of Ma'tsara'ym also, as you were ashamed of Ashur.

37 From there also you shall go forth, with your hands on your head, for 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has rejected those in whom you trust, and you shall not prosper with them.

CHAPTER 3

1 "To say: ‘Behold, a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and become another man's, will he return to her again?' Would that land not be greatly polluted? But you have whored with many lovers, yet return again to Me," says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

2 "Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat for them by the ways, as an Arab’ya in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your whoredom and with your wickedness.

3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain, yet you have a whore’s forehead, you refused to be ashamed.

4 Will you not from this time cry to me, 'My Father, You are the guide of my youth?'

5 "'Will he bear a grudge forever? Will he keep it to the end?' Behold, you have spoken and have done evils, and have had your way.

6 Moreover, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) said to me in the days of Ya'asha'Yahu the king, "Have you seen that which backsliding Yashar'AL has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has committed whoredom.

7 And I said after she had done all these: ‘She will return to me,' but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Yahudah saw it.

8 And I saw that, for all the causes that backsliding Yashar'AL had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet treacherous Yahudah, her sister, did not fear, but she also went and committed whoredom.

9 And it came to be through the lightness of her whoring, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Yahudah, has not returned to Me with her whole heart, but in falsehood,” says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

11 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) said to me, "Backsliding Yashar'AL has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Yahudah.

12 Walk and proclaim these words toward the north and say, 'Return, O backsliding Yashar'AL,' says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), 'I will not look in anger on you, for I am kind,’ says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH). 'I will not bear a grudge forever.

13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Your ALUAH, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,' says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)."

14 "Return, O backsliding children," says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), "for I am a husband to you. And I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Tsa'yun (Tsa'yoon).

15 And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

16 And it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days," says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), "they shall say no more, 'The Ark of the Bar'yath (covenant) of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)!' neither shall it come to mind, neither shall they remember it, neither shall they miss it, neither shall it be made any more.

17 At that time they shall call Yaru'shalam 'The throne of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH),' and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), to Yaru'shalam. And neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

18 In those days the house of Yahudah shall walk with the house of Yashar'AL, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.

19 "But I said, 'How I would put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of the nations!' and I said, 'You shall call me "My Father," and shall not turn away from following me.'

20 "Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Yashar'AL," says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

21 A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping, the petitions of the children of Yashar'AL, because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Their ALUAH.

22 Return, O backsliding children, I will heal your backsliding: "Behold, we have come to You, for You are 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH.

23 Truly in vain is from the hills, the tumult on the mountains. Truly the saving of Yashar'AL is in 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH.

24 But the shame has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us, for we have transgressed against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH."

CHAPTER 4

1 "If you will return, O Yashar'AL," says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), "if you will return to Me, and if you will put away your abominations out of My sight, then you shall not be removed,

2 and you shall swear, 'As 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Abides,' in truth, in right ruling, and in righteousness. The nations shall Barak themselves in him, and in Him shall they esteem."

3 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) to the men of Yahudah and to Yaru'shalam, "Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns.

4 Circumcise yourselves to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Yahudah and inhabitants of Yaru'shalam, lest My wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

5 Declare in Yahudah and be heard in Yaru'shalam, and say, 'Blow the ram’s horn in the land!' Cry aloud and say, 'Assemble yourselves! Let us go into the fortified cities!'

6 Place up a standard toward Tsa'yun (Tsa'yoon). Flee for safety! Do not wait, for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction."

7 A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations, he is on his way, he is gone forth from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.

8 For this clothe yourself with sackcloth, lament and wail, for the fierce anger of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has not turned back from us.

9 “And it shall be in that day," says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), "that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes, and the ka’ahn’ym (priests) shall be astonished, and the nab’ya’ym (prophets), they will be astonished.”

10 Then I said, "Ah, Sovereign 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)! Surely You have deceived, deceived this people and Yaru'shalam saying, 'You shall have shalum (peace),’ whereas the sword reaches to the heart."

11 At that time shall it be said to this people and to Yaru'shalam, "A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of My people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse,

12 a full wind from these shall come for Me. Now I will also utter judgments against them."

13 Behold, He shall come up as clouds, and His chariots as the whirlwind: His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! For we are ruined.

14 O Yaru'shalam, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?

15 For a voice declares from Dan and proclaims trouble from Mount Apara’ym:

16 "Tell the nations, behold, proclaim against Yaru'shalam, 'Watchers come from a far land, and raise their voice against the cities of Yahudah.

17 As keepers of a field, they are against her all around, because she has been rebellious against Me,'" says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

18 "Your way and your doings have brought these to you. This is your wickedness, for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart."

19 My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart, my heart is disquieted in me, I cannot keep silent because you have heard, O my being, the sound of the ram’s horn, the alarm of war.

20 Destruction on destruction is cried, for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed,  my curtains in a moment.

21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the ram’s horn?

22 "For My people are foolish, they do not know Me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but to do good they have no knowledge."

23 I saw the earth and behold, it was waste and void, and the shama'ym, and they had no light.

24 I saw the mountains,and behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth.

25 I saw and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky had fled.

26 I saw and behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down from the face of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), from the face of His fierce anger.

27 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), "The whole land shall be a desolation, yet will I not make a full end.

28 For this the earth will mourn, and the shama'ym above be dark, because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it."

29 Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers, they go into the thickets, and climb up on the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein.

30 And when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck you with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain do you make yourself beautiful, lovers despise you, they seek your being.

31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Tsa'yun (Tsa'yoon), who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands: "Woe is me now! For my being faints before the murderers."

CHAPTER 5

1 "Run to and fro through the streets of Yaru'shalam, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places of it, if you can find a man, if there are any who does right ruling, who seeks truth, and I will pardon her.

2 Though they say, 'As 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Abides,' surely they swear falsely."

3 O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), do Your eyes not look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.

4 Then I said, "Surely these are poor. They are foolish, for they do not know the way of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), nor the ordinance of their ALUAH.

5 I will go to the great and will speak to them, for they know the way of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and the ordinance of their ALUAH." But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

6 Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them, a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their cities, everyone who goes out there shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many, their backsliding is increased.

7 "How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by what are not mighty ones. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the house of a whore.

8 They were as fed horses roaming at large: everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife.

9 Should I not punish them for these?" says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), "and should My being not be avenged on such a nation as this?

10 "Go up on her walls, and destroy, but do not make a full end. Take away her branches, for they are not 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)'S.

11 For the house of Yashar'AL and the house of Yahudah have dealt very treacherously against Me," says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

12 They have denied 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) and said: "It is not he, neither shall evil come on us, neither shall we see sword nor famine.

13 And the nab’ya’ym (prophets) shall become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them."

14 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), The ALUAH of hosts, "Because you speak this word, behold, I will make My Words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

15 Behold, I will bring a nation on you from afar, O house of Yashar'AL," says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH). "It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, neither understand what they say.

16 Their quiver is an open tomb, they are all mighty men.

17 And they shall eat up your harvest, and your bread: [that] your sons and your daughters should eat. They shall eat up your flocks and your herds. They shall eat up your vines and your fig trees. They shall beat down your fortified cities, in which you trust, with the sword.

18 "But even in those days," says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), "I will not make a full end with you.

19 And it will be, when you say, ‘Under why has 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH done all these to us?' Then you shall say to them, 'Just like you have forsaken Me and served foreign idols in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.'

20 "Declare this in the house of Ya'aqab, and publish it in Yahudah, saying,

21 'Hear this now, O foolish people, and without understanding, who have eyes, and do not see, who have ears, and do not hear:

22 Do you not fear Me?' says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) 'Will you not tremble from My face, who has placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it? and though its waves toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail, though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it.'

23 "But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart, they have revolted and gone.

24 Neither do they say in their heart, 'Let us now fear 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season, who preserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.'

25 "Your iniquities have turned away these, and your transgressions have restrained the good from you.

26 For among My people are found wicked men. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. They place a trap. They catch men.

27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they have become great and grew rich.

28 They have grown fat. They are sleek. Yes, they excell in deeds of wickedness. They do not plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper, and they do not judge the right of the needy.

29 "Shall I not punish for these?" says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH). "Shall not My being be avenged on such a nation as this?

30 "An astonishing and atrocity has happened in the land.

31 The nab’ya’ym (prophets) nab’a (prophesy) in falsehood, and the ka’ahn’ym (priests) rule by their authority, and My people love to have it so. And what will you do in the end of it?

CHAPTER 6

1 "Flee for safety, O children of Ban'yaman, out of the midst of Yaru'shalam, and blow the ram’s horn in Thaqua, and raise up a signal on Bayath Ha’Karam, for evil looks forth from the north, and a great destruction.

2 The lovely and delicate one, the daughter of Tsa'yun (Tsa'yoon), will I cut off.

3 Shepherds with their flocks shall come to her, they shall pitch their tents against her all around, they shall feed everyone in his place."

4 "Prepare war against her, arise, and let us go up at midday. Woe to us! For the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.

5 Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces."

6 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts said, "Cut down trees, and cast up a mound against Yaru'shalam: this is the city to be visited, she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.

7 As a well casts forth its waters, so she casts forth her wickedness: violence and destruction is heard in her, before me continually is sickness and wounds.

8 Be instructed, O Yaru'shalam, lest My being be removed from you, lest I make you a desolation, a land not inhabited."

9 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, "They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Yashar'AL like a vine. Turn again your hand as a grape gatherer into the baskets."

10 To whom shall I speak and witness, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot listen. Behold, The Word Of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it.

11 Therefore I am full of the wrath of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH). I am weary with holding in. "Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of young men together, for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him who is full of days.

12 Their houses shall be turned to others, their fields and their wives together, for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of the land, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)."

13 "For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to corrupt gain, and from a nab’ya (prophet) even to a ka’ahn (priest), everyone deals falsely.

14 And they have healed the hurt of my people superficially saying, ‘Shalum (Peace), Shalum (peace)!’ when there is no shalum (peace).

15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall, at the time that I visit them, they shall be cast down," says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

16 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), "Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the everlasting paths, 'Where is the good way?' and walk in it, and you will find rest for your beings. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'

17 And I establish watchmen over you saying, 'Listen to the sound of the ram’s horn!’ But they said, 'We will not listen!'

18 For therefore hear, the nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.

19 Hear, O earth! Behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to My words, and as for my Thur’ath, they have rejected it.

20 To what purpose comes there to me frankincense from Shaba, and the sweet cane from a far land? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your slaughterings pleasing to Me."

21 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), "Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people. The fathers and the sons together shall stumble against them. The neighbor and his friend shall perish."

22 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), "Behold, a people comes from the north land. A great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

23 They take hold of bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no compassion. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, everyone put in array, as a man to the battle, against you, O daughter of Tsa'yun (Tsa'yoon)."

24 We have heard its report, our hands wax feeble: anguish has taken hold of us, pangs as of a woman in travail.

25 Do not go forth into the field, nor walk by the way, for the sword of the enemy, terror, are on every side.

26 O daughter of My people, clothe yourself with sackcloth, and wallow in ashes! Mourn, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, for the destroyer shall suddenly come on us.

27 "I have made you a trier, a fortress among my people, that you may know and try their way.

28 They are all grievous rebels, going about with slanders, they are bronze and iron: they all of them deal corruptly.

29 The bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining, for the wicked are not plucked away.

30 They will call them rejected silver, because 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has rejected them."

CHAPTER 7

1 The word that came to Yaram'Yahu from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) saying,

2 "Stand in the gate of the House OF 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) and proclaim there this Word, and say: 'Hear the Word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), all you of Yahudah, who enter in at these gates to worship 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

3 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, the ALUAH of Yashar'AL: Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to abide in this place.

4 Do not trust in lying words saying, The Hayakal of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), the Hayakal of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), the Hayakal of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), are these.

5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute right ruling between a man and his neighbor,

6 If you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other idols to your own hurt:

7 then will I cause you to abide in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forevermore.

8 Behold, you trust in lying words, that cannot profit.

9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Ba'al, and walk after other idols that you have not known,

10 and come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by Ny Name and say, We are rescued, that You may do all these abominations?

11 Is this House, which is called by My Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

12 But go now to My place which was in Sha’yalu (Sha’ya’loo), where I caused My Name to abide at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Yashar'AL.

*See Verse 14 Below

13 Now because you have done all these works, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer:

14 therefore will I do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shalu.

*Note The Masoretic difference between here and verse 12

15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Apara’ym.

16 Therefore do not pray for this people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear you.

17 Do you not see what they do in the cities of Yahudah and in the streets of Yaru'shalam?

18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the sovereigness of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other idols, that they may provoke Me to anger.

19 Do they provoke Me to anger? says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), not to themselves, to the confusion of their faces?

20 Therefore thus says the Sovereign 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, My anger and My wrath shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on beast, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground, and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

21 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: Add your burnt offerings to your slaughterings and eat meat.

22 For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Ma'tsara'ym, concerning burnt offerings or slaughterings:

23 but this, The Word, I commanded them saying: Obey My voice, and I will be your ALUAH, and you shall be My people, and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.

24 But they did not listen nor turn their ear, but walked in counsels, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Ma'tsara'ym to this day, I have sent to you all My servants the nab’ya’ym (prophets), daily rising up early and sending them:

26 yet they did not listen to Me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers.

27 And you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you: you shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.

28 And you shall tell them, This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) their ALUAH, nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

29 Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights, for 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.

30 For the children of Yahudah have done that which is evil in My sight, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): they have put their abominations in the House which is called by My Name, to defile it.

31 And they have built the high places of the Tha'path, which is in the valley of son of Hanam, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.

32 Therefore behold, the days will come, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that it shall no more be called Tha'path, nor the valley of son of Hanam, but the valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Tha'path, until there be no place.

33 And the dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the beasts of the earth, and none shall frighten them away.

34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Yahudah, and from the streets of Yaru'shalam, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall become a waste.

CHAPTER 8

1 At that time, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Yahudah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the ka’ahn’ym (priests), and the bones of the nab’ya’ym (prophets), and the bones of the inhabitants of Yaru'shalam, out of their graves,

2 and they shall spread them to the sun, and to the moon, and to all the army of the sky, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung on the surface of the earth.

3 And death shall be chosen rather than khaYah (life) to all the remnant that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts.

4 Moreover you shall tell them, Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return?

5 Why then is this people of Yaru'shalam slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

6 I listened and heard, but they did not speak right: no man repents him of his wickedness saying, What have I done? Everyone turns to his course, as a horse that rushes in the battle.

7 Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times, and the turtledove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming, but my people do not know the ordinance of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

8 How do you say, We are discerned, and the Thur’ath of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) is with us? But behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely.

9 The discerned are disappointed, they are dismayed and taken: behold, they have rejected the Word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and what kind of discernment is in them?

10 Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to those who shall possess them: for everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to corrupt gain, from a nab’ya (prophet) even to a ka’ahn (priest) every one deals falsely.

11 They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly saying, Shalum (Peace), Shalum (peace), when there is no shalum (peace).

12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among those who fall, in the time of their punishment they shall be cast down, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

13 I will utterly consume them, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): no grapes shall be on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade, and I have given them shall pass away from them.

14 Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there, for 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH has put us to silence, and given us water of poison to drink, because we have transgressed against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

15 Looking for shalum (peace), but no good, for a time of curing, and behold, terror!

16 The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles, for they are come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it, the city and those who dwell therein.

17 For behold, I will send serpents, adders among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

18 Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! My heart is faint within me.

19 Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: Is not 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) in Tsa'yun (Tsa'yoon)? Is not her King in her? Why have they provoked Me to anger with their engraved images, and with foreign vanities?

20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!

21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn, dismay has taken hold on me.

22 Is there no balm in Gal'ad? Is there no physician there? Why then is the health of the daughter of my people not recovered?

CHAPTER 9

1 Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

3 And they bend their tongue, their bow for falsehood, and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know Me, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

4 Take heed everyone of his neighbor, and do not trust in any brother, for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders.

5 And man will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, they weary themselves to commit iniquity.

6 Your habitation is in the midst of deceit, through deceit they refuse to know Me, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

7 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, Behold, I will refine them and try them, for how should I deal, from the face of the daughter of my people?

8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow, it speaks deceit: one speaks shalum (peace) to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lays wait for him.

9 Shall I not visit them for these? says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), Shall not My being be avenged on such a nation as this?

10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passes through, neither can men hear the voice of the livestock, both the birds of the sky and the beasts are fled, they are gone.

11 And I will make Yaru'shalam heaps, an abiding place of jackals, and I will make the cities of Yahudah desolate, without inhabitant.

12 Who is the discerned man, that may understand this? and he to whom the mouth of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passes through?

13 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) says, Because they have forsaken My Thur’ath which I give before them, and have not obeyed My voice, neither walked therein,

14 but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Ba'al'ym, which their fathers taught them,

15 therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of poison to drink.

16 And I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.

17 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts: consider and call for the mourning women, that they may come, and send for the skillful women, that they may come:

18 and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.

19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Tsa'yun (Tsa'yoon): How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.

20 Yet hear the Word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), O women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and everyone her neighbor lamentation.

21 For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from outside, the young men from the streets.

22 Speak, Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvester, and none shall gather.

23 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), Do not let the discerned man boast in his discernment, neither let the mighty man boast in his might, do not let the rich man boast in his riches,

24 But let him who boasts boast in this, that he has understanding, and knows Me, that I am 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) who exercises loving kindness, right ruling, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these I delight, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

25 Behold, the days come, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that I will punish all those who are circumcised in uncircumcision:

26 Ma'tsara'ym, and Yahudah, and Adum, and the children of Amun, and Mu'ab, and all that have the corners cut off, who dwell in the wilderness, for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Yashar'AL are uncircumcised in heart.

CHAPTER 10

1 Hear the Word that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) speaks to you, O house of Yashar'AL!

2 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), “You do not learn in regard, the way of the nations, and do not be dismayed at the signs of the sky, for the nations are dismayed at them.

3 For the customs of the peoples are vanity, for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe.

4 They deck it with silver and with gold, they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move.

5 They are like a palm tree,* of turned work, and do not speak: they must be carried, because they cannot go. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good."

*Some translations read scarecrow, but the restored translation is palm or palm tree

6 There is none like You, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), You are great, and Your Name is great in might.

7 Who should not fear You, O Sovereign of the nations? For it appertains to You, because among all the discerned men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like You.

8 But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! It is but a stock.

9 There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tharash’yash, and gold from A’u’paz (A’oo’paz), the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith, blue and purple for their clothing, they are all the work of skillful men.

10 But 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) is the true ALUAH, He is the abiding ALUAH, and an everlasting Sovereign: at His wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to withstand His wrath.

11 You shall say this to them: The idols that have not made the shama'ym and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the shama'ym.

12 He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His discernment, and by His understanding has He stretched out the shama'ym:

13 When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the shama'ym, and He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth, He makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of His treasuries.

14 Every man is become brutish without knowledge, every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image, for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

15 They are vanity, a work of mockery: in the time of their punishment they shall perish.

16 The portion of Ya'aqab is not like these, for he is the former of all, and Yashar'AL is the tribe of His inheritance: 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts is His Name.

17 Gather up your wares out of the land, you who abide under siege.

18 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel.

19 Woe is me because of my hurt! My wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is my sickness, and I must bear it.

20 My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are no more: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to establish my curtains.

21 For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.

22 The voice of a report, behold it comes, and a great commotion out of the north land, to make the cities of Yahudah a desolation, a dwelling place of jackals.

23 O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.

24 O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), correct me, but in right ruling: not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing.

25 Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not know You, and on the families that do not call on Your Name: For they have devoured Ya'aqab, and they have eaten and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.

CHAPTER 11

1 The word that came to Yaram'Yahu from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) saying,

2 Hear the words of this Bar'yath (covenant), and speak to the men of Yahudah, and to the inhabitants of Yaru'shalam,

3 and say to them, Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), the ALUAH of Yashar'AL: Cursed is the man who does not hear the words of this Bar'yath (covenant),

4 which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Ma'tsara'ym, out of the iron furnace saying, Obey My voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so you shall be My people, and I will be your ALUAH,

5 that I may establish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day. Then answered I and said: So Be It, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

6 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Yahudah, and in the streets of Yaru'shalam saying: Hear the words of this Bar'yath (covenant) and do them.

7 For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Ma'tsara'ym, even to this day, rising early and protesting saying: Obey My voice.

8 Yet they did not obey, nor turn their ear, but walked everyone in the stubbornness of their evil heart: therefore I brought on them all the words of this Bar'yath (covenant), which I commanded them to do, but they did not do them.

9 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) said to me: A conspiracy is found among the men of Yahudah, and among the inhabitants of Yaru'shalam.

10 They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear My words, and they are gone after other idols to serve them: the house of Yashar'AL and the house of Yahudah have broken my Bar'yath (covenant) which I made with their fathers.

11 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), Behold, I will bring evil on them, which they shall not be able to escape, and they shall cry to me, but I will not listen to them.

12 Then shall the cities of Yahudah and the inhabitants of Yaru'shalam go and cry to the idols to which they offer incense: but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble.

13 For according to the number of your cities are your idols, O Yahudah, and according to the number of the streets of Yaru'shalam have you put up altars to shame, even altars to burn incense to Ba'al.

14 Therefore do not pray for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to Me because of their evil.

15 What has My beloved to do in my house, since she has worked lewdness [with] the many, and the Made Apart flesh is passed from you? When you do evil, then you exalt.

16 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) called your name: a green olive tree, beautiful with goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire on it, and its branches are broken.

17 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Yashar'AL and of the house of Yahudah, which they have worked for themselves in provoking me to anger by offering incense to Ba'al.

18 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it: then you showed me their doings.

19 But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter, and I did not know that they had devised devices against me: Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.

20 But 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, I shall see your vengeance on them, for to you have I revealed my cause.

21 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) concerning the men of Anath'uth, who seek your being saying, You shall not nab’a (prophesy) IN The Name OF 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that you not die by our hand,

22 therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts: Behold, I will punish them, the young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine,

23 and there shall be no remnant to them: for I will bring evil on the men of Anath'uth, even the year of their punishment.

CHAPTER 12

1 You are righteous, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), when I contend with You, yet I would reason the cause with You: why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are all they at ease who deal very treacherously?

2 You have planted them, yes, they have taken root, they grow, yes, they bring forth fruit: You are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.

3 But You, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), know me, You see me, and try my heart toward You: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

4 How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole land wither? For the wickedness of those who abide therein, the beasts are consumed, and the birds, because they said: He shall not see our latter end.

5 If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied You, then how can You contend with horses? And though in a land of peace you are secure, yet how will you do in the pride of the Yardan?

6 For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you, even they have cried aloud after you: do not trust them, though they speak beautiful words to you.

7 I have forsaken My house, I have cast off My heritage, I have given the beloveds of My being into the hand of her enemies.

8 My heritage is become to me as a lion in the forest: she has uttered her voice against Me, therefore I have hated her.

9 Is My heritage to me as a speckled bird of prey? Are the birds of prey against her all around? Walk, assemble all the beasts of the field, bring them to devour.

10 Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard, they have trodden My portion under foot, they have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.

11 They have made it a desolation, it mourns to Me, being desolate, the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart.

12 Destroyers are come on all the bare heights in the wilderness, for the sword of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) devours from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: There is no shalum (peace) to all flesh.

13 They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns, they have put themselves to pain, and profit nothing: and you shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce anger of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

14 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) against all My evil neighbors, who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Yashar'AL to inherit: Behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Yahudah from among them.

15 And it shall be, after that I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them, and I will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.

16 And it shall be, if they will diligently learn the ways of My people, to swear by My Name, As 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Abides, as they taught My people to swear by Ba'al, then shall they be built up in the midst of My people.

17 But if they will not hear, then will I pluck up that nation, plucking up and destroying it, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

CHAPTER 13

1 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) to me: Walk and buy yourself a linen belt, and put it on your loins, and do not put it in water.

2 So I bought a belt according to the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) and put it on my loins.

3 And the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came to me the second time saying,

4 Take the belt that you have bought, which is on your loins, and arise, go to Parath’ah and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.

5 So I went, and hid it by the Parath, as 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) commanded me.

6 And it came to be after many days that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) said to me, Arise, go to the Parath’ah, and take the belt from there, which I commanded you to hide there.

7 Then I went to the Parath’ah and dug, and took the belt from the place where I had hidden it, and behold, the belt was destroyed, it was profitable for nothing.

8 Then the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came to me saying,

9 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), In this way I will destroy the pride of Yahudah, and the great pride of Yaru'shalam.

10 This evil people, who refuse to hear My Words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and are gone after other idols to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing.

11 For as the belt clings to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cling to Me the whole house of Yashar'AL and the whole house of Yahudah, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that they may be to Me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a esteem: But they would not hear.

12 Therefore you shall speak to them this Word: Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: Every bottle shall be filled with wine, and they shall tell you, do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?

13 Then you shall tell them, Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit on Dau'yad's throne, and the ka’ahn’ym (priests), and the nab’ya’ym (prophets), and all the inhabitants of Yaru'shalam, with drunkenness.

14 And I will dash them one against another, the fathers and the sons together, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): I will not pity, nor spare, nor have compassion, that I should not destroy them.

15 Hear and give ear, do not be proud, for 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has spoken.

16 Give esteem to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Your ALUAH, before He causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you look for light, He turns it into the shadow of death and makes it gross darkness.

17 But if you will not hear it, my being shall weep in secret for confidence, and my eye shall weep bitterly, and run down with tears, because the flock of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) flock is taken captive.

18 Say to the king and to the sovereigness mother: Humble yourselves, sit down, for your headdresses have come down, even the crown of your esteem.

19 The cities of the South are shut up, and there is none to open them: Yahudah is carried away captive, all of it, it is wholly carried away captive.

20 Lift up your eyes and see those who come from the north: where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock?

21 What will you say, when he shall put over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? Shall not sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail?

22 And if you say in your heart: Why are these come on me? For the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts uncovered, and your heels suffer violence.

23 Can the Kush’ya (Koosh’ya) change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.

24 Therefore will I scatter them, as the stubble that passes away, by the wind of the wilderness.

25 This is your lot, the portion measured to you from Me, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), because you have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood.

26 Therefore will I also uncover your skirts on your face, and your shame shall appear:

27 your abominations, even your adulteries, and your neighing, the wickedness of your whoring, on the hills in the field. Woe to you, O Yaru'shalam! You will not be made clean, how long shall it yet be?

CHAPTER 14

1 The word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) that came to Yaram'Yahu concerning words of the droughts:

2 Yahudah mourns, and its gates languish, they mourn for the land, and the cry of Yaru'shalam is gone up.

3 And their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the cisterns and find no water, they return with their vessels empty, they are ashamed and confounded, and cover their heads.

4 Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are disappointed, they cover their heads.

5 Yes, even the deer in the field calves and forsakes because there is no grass.

6 And the wild donkeys stand on the bare heights, they pant for air like monsters, their eyes fail because there is no herbage.

7 Though our iniquities witness against us, work for Your Name's Sake, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), for our backslidings are many, we have transgressed against You.

8 O hope of Yashar'AL, its Savior in the time of distress, why should you be as a foreigner in the land, and as a wayfaring man who turns aside to stay for a night?

9 Why should you be like a scared man, as a mighty man who cannot save? Yet You, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), are in the midst of us, and we are called by Your Name, do not leave us.

10 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) to this people: Even so have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet: therefore 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) does not accept them, now He will remember their iniquity, and visit their transgressions.

11 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) said to me, Do not pray for this people for good.

12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry, and when they offer burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them, but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

13 Then I said, Ah, Sovereign 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)! Behold, the nab’a’ym (prophets) tell them, You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine, but I will give to them shalum (peace) in this place.

14 Then 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) said to me: The nab’a’ym (prophets) nab’a’ym (prophesy) lies in My Name, I did not send them, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke I to them: they nab’a’ym (prophesy) to you a lying vision, and divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart.

15 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) concerning the nab’a’ym (prophets) who nab’a’ym (prophesy) in My Name, and I didnot send them, yet they say, sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those nab’a’ym (prophets) be consumed.

16 The people to whom they nab’a’ym (prophesy) shall be cast out in the streets of Yaru'shalam because of the famine and the sword, and they shall have none to bury them—them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness on them.

17 You shall say this word to them, Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound.

18 If I go forth into the field, then behold, the slain with the sword! And if I enter into the city, then, behold, those who are sick with famine! for both the nab’ya (prophet) and the ka’ahn (priest) go about in the land and have no knowledge.

19 Have You utterly rejected Yahudah? Has Your being loathed Tsa'yun (Tsa'yoon)? Why have You struck us and there is no healing for us? We looked for shalum (peace), but no good came, and for a time of curing, and behold, terror!

20 We acknowledge, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have transgressed against you.

21 Do not abhor for Your Name's sake, do not despise the throne of your esteem: Remember, do not break Your Bar'yath (covenant) with us.

22 Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Are You not He, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH? Therefore we will wait for You, for You have made all these.

CHAPTER 15

1 Then 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) said to me, Though Mashah and Shamu'AL stood before Me, yet My being would not be toward this people: cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth.

2 And it shall be, when they tell you: Where shall we go forth? Then you shall tell them, Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Such as are for death, to death, and such as are for the sword, to the sword, and such as are for the famine, to the famine, and such as are for captivity, to captivity.

3 And I will appoint over them four kinds, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): the sword to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the sky, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and to destroy.

4 And I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the reigns of the earth, because of Mana'shah, son of Ya'Khazaqa'Yahu, king of Yahudah, for that which he did in Yaru'shalam.

5 For who will have compassion on you, O Yaru'shalam? Or who will bemoan you? Or who will turn aside to ask of your welfare?

6 You have rejected Me, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), you have gone backward: therefore have I stretched out My hand against you, and destroyed you, I am weary with relenting.

7 I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land, I have bereaved of children, I have destroyed My people, they did not return from their ways.

8 Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas, I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.

9 She who has borne seven languishes, she has given up the rukh, her sun is gone down while it was yet day, she has been disappointed and confounded: and the remnant of them will I give to the sword before their enemies, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

10 Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me, everyone of them does curse me.

11 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) said, most certainly I will strengthen you for good, most certainly I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

12 Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and bronze?

13 Your substance and your treasures will I give for a plunder, not with price, and that for all your transgressions, even in all your borders.

14 And I caused to pass over with your enemies into a land which you do not know, for a fire is kindled in My anger, which shall burn on you.

15 O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), You Yourself know, remember me and visit me, and avenge for me of my persecutors, do not take me away in Your longsuffering:* Know that for Your sake I have suffered reproach.

*The literal translation is slow anger

16 Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by Your Name, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), ALUAH of hosts.

17 I did not sit in the assembly of those who make merry, nor rejoiced, I sat alone because of Your hand, for You have filled me with displeasure.

18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will You indeed be to me as false waters that do not support?

19 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): If you return, then will I bring you again, that you may stand before Me, and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth: they shall return to you, but you shall not return to them.

20 And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall, and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you to save you and to rescue you, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

21 And I will rescue you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.

CHAPTER 16

1 The word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came also to me saying,

2 You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters, in this place.

3 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) concerning the sons and concerning the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers who became the father of them in this land:

4 They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried, they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground, and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the beasts of the earth.

5 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), Do not enter into the house of mourning, neither go to lament, neither bemoan them, for I have taken away My shalum (peace) from this people, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), even loving kindness and tender compassions.

6 Both great and small shall die in this land, they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them,

7 neither shall men break for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead, neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

8 You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink.

9 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

10 And it shall be, when you shall show this people all these words, and they shall tell you, Why has 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) pronounced all this great evil against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our transgression that we have committed against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH?

11 Then you shall tell them: Because your fathers have forsaken me, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and have walked after other idols, and have served them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken Me, and have not kept My Thur’ath,

12 and you have done evil more than your fathers, for behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you do not listen to Me:

13 therefore will I cast you forth out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, and there you shall serve other idols day and night, for I will show you no favor.

14 Therefore behold, the days come, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that it shall no more be said, As 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Abides, who brought up the children of Yashar'AL out of the land of Ma'tsara'ym,

15 But As 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Abides, who brought up the children of Yashar'AL from the land of the north, and from all the lands where He had driven them. And I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.

16 Behold, I will send for many fishermen, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and they shall fish them up, and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.

17 For My eyes are on all their ways, they are not hidden from My face, neither is their iniquity concealed from My eyes.

18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their transgression double, because they have polluted My land with the carcasses of their detestables, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.

19 O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) My strength, and My stronghold, and My refuge in the day of affliction, to You shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and shall say: Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity and there is no profit in them.

20 Shall a man make to himself mighty ones, which yet are no mighty ones?

21 Therefore behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I cause them to know My hand and My might, and they shall know that My Name IS 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)!

CHAPTER 17

1 The transgression of Yahudah is written with a pen of iron, with the point of a diamond: it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars,

2 while their children remember their altars and their ashar’ym by the green trees on the high hills.

3 My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures for a plunder, your high places because of trangression throughout all your borders.

4 And you, even of yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you, and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you do not know: for you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.

5 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm,* and whose heart departs from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

*This can also be translated as strength

6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited.

7 Baruk is the man who trusts in 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and whose trust 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) is.

8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

9 The heart is deep beyond all things, and it is the man, and who can know him?*

*This is the translation rendered from the Septuagint. Note how it differs from most translations

10 I, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

11 As a partridge that broods which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right, in the midst of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he shall be a fool.

12 An esteemed throne, on high from the beginning, is the place of our made apart place.

13 O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), the expectancy of Yashar'AL, all who forsake You shall be disappointed. Those who depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), the spring of living waters.

14 Heal me, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and I shall be healed, save me, and I shall be saved: for You are my praise.

15 Behold, they tell me: Where is the Word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)? Let it come now.

16 As for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after You, neither have I desired the woeful day, You know: that which came out of my lips was before Your face.

17 Do not be for destruction to me: You are My refuge in the day of evil.

18 Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but let not me be disappointed, let them be dismayed, but do not let me be dismayed, bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

19 Thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) to me: Walk and stand in the gate of the children of the people, through which the kings of Yahudah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Yaru'shalam,

20 and tell them: Hear the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), you kings of Yahudah, and all Yahudah, and all the inhabitants of Yaru'shalam, that enter in by these gates:

21 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Shabath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Yaru'shalam,

22 neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Shabath Day Made Apart, neither do any work: but make apart the Shabath Day, as I commanded your fathers.

23 But they did not listen, neither turn their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction.

24 And it shall be, if you diligently obey Me, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Shabath Day, but to make the Shabath Day Made Apart, to do no work therein,

25 then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of Dau'yad, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Yahudah, and the inhabitants of Yaru'shalam, and this city shall remain forever.

26 They shall come from the cities of Yahudah, and from the places around Yaru'shalam, and from the land of Ban'yaman, and from the lowland, and from the mountain, and from the South, bringing burnt offerings, and slaughterings, and meal offerings, and frankincense, and bringing thanksgiving, to the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

27 But if you will not listen to me to make the Shabath Day apart, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Yaru'shalam on the Shabath Day, then will I kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Yaru'shalam, and it shall not be quenched.

CHAPTER 18

1 The Word that came to Yaram'Yahu from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) saying,

2 Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear My Words.

3Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was making a work on the wheels.

4 When the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

5 Then The Word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came to me saying,

6 O House of Yashar'AL, can I not do with you as this potter? says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH). Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My Hand, O house of Yashar'AL.

7 At what moment I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a reign, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it,

8 If that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.

9 At what moment I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a reign, to build and to plant it,

10 If they do that which is evil in My sight, that they not obey My voice, then I will repent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them.

11 Now therefore, speak to the men of Yahudah, and to the inhabitants of Yaru'shalam saying, Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, I form evil against you, and devise a device against you: Return you now everyone from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.

12 But they say: It is in vain, for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do everyone after the stubbornness of his evil heart.

13 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Ask now among the nations, who has heard these? The virgin of Yashar'AL has done what is most horrible.

14 Shall the snow of Laba'nun (Laba’noon) fail from the rock of the field? Shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?

15 For My people have forgotten Me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up,

16 to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing, everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.

17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy, I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

18 Then they said: Come and let us devise devices against Yaram'Yahu, for the Thurah shall not perish from the ka’ahn (priest), nor counsel from the discerned, nor the word from the nab’ya (prophet). Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

19 Give heed to me, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and hear the voice of those who contend with me.

20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? For they have dug a pit for my being. Remember how I stood to Your face to speak good for them, to turn away Your wrath from them.

21 Therefore give up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword, and let their wives become childless and widows, and let their men be slain of death, their young men struck of the sword in battle.

22 Let a cry be heard from their houses, when You shall bring a troop suddenly on them, for they have dug a pit to take me and hid snares for my feet.

23 And You, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), You know all their counsel against me to kill me, do not forgive their iniquity, neither blot out their transgrsesion from Your face, but let them be overthrown before Your face, deal with them in the time of Your anger.

CHAPTER 19

1 Thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Walk and buy a potter's earthen bottle, and of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the ka’ahn’ym (priests),

2 and go forth to the valley of son of Hanam, which is by the entry of the gate Ha’Kharasa’yth, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you,

3 and say: Hear The Word OF 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), O kings of Yahudah and inhabitants of Yaru'shalam: thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL, Behold, I will bring evil on this place, which whoever hears, his ears shall tingle.

4 Because they have forsaken Me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other idols, that they did not know, they and their fathers and the kings of Yahudah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents,

5 and have built the high places of Ba'al, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt offerings to Ba'al, which I did not command, nor spoke it, neither came it into My heart:

6 Therefore behold, the days come, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that this place shall no more be called Tha'path, nor the valley of son of Hanam, but the valley of Slaughter.

7 And I will make void the counsel of Yahudah and Yaru'shalam in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their being: and their dead bodies will I give to be food for the birds of the sky, and for the beasts of the earth.

8 And I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing, everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.

9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies, and those who seek their being shall distress them.

10 Then you shall break the bottle in the sight of the men who go with you,

11 and shall tell them, Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts: Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again, and they shall bury in Tha'path, until there be no place to bury.

12 Thus will I do to this place, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and to its inhabitants, even making this city as Tha'path:

13 and the houses of Yaru'shalam, and the houses of the kings of Yahudah, which are defiled, shall be as the place of Tha'path, even all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the army of the sky, and have poured out drink offerings to other idols.

14 Then came Yaram'Yahu from Tha'path, where 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) had sent him to nab’a (prophesy), and he stood in the court of the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) and said to all the people:

15 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: Behold, I will bring on this city and on all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have made their neck stiff, that they may not hear My Words.

CHAPTER 20

1 Now Pasha'khur, son of Amar the ka’ahn (priest), who was chief officer in the house of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), heard Yaram'Yahu nab’a (prophesying) these words.

2 Then Pasha'khur struck Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet) and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Ban'yaman, which was in the house of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

3 And it came to be on the next day, that Pasha'khur brought forth Yaram'Yahu out of the stocks. Then Yaram'Yahu said to him, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has not called your name Pasha'khur, but Magur Ma’saba’yab.

4 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself, and to all your friends, and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it, and I will give all Yahudah into the hand of the king of Babal, and he shall carry them captive to Babal, and shall kill them with the sword.

5 Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and all its gains, and all the valuables, and all the treasures of the kings of Yahudah will I give into the hand of their enemies, and they shall make them a prey, and take them, and carry them to Babal.

6 And you, Pasha'khur, and all who dwell in your house shall go into captivity, and you shall come to Babal, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have nab’a (prophesied) in falsehood.

7 O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), You have persuaded me, and I was persuaded, You are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am become a laughingstock all the day, every one mocks me.

8 For as often as I speak, I cry out, I cry: Violence and destruction! Because the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) is made a reproach to me, and a derision all the day.

9 If I say, I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His Name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary of containing, and I am not able.

10 For I have heard the mocking of many, terror on every side. Denounce, and we will denounce him, all my acquaintances, those who watch for my fall, perhaps he will be persuaded, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

11 But 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) is with me as an awesome, mighty one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail, they shall be utterly disappointed, because they have not dealt discernedly, even with an everlasting shame which shall never be forgotten.

12 But 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see Your vengeance on them, for to You have I revealed my cause.

13 Sing to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), Praise 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), for He has rescued the being of the needy from the hand of evildoers.

14 Cursed is the day in which I was born: Do not let the day in which my mother bore me be Baruk.

15 Cursed is the man who brought news to my father saying: A boy is born to you, making him very glad.

16 Let that man be as the cities that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) overthrew, and did not repent: and let him hear a cry in the rising, and shouting at noontime,

17 Because he did not kill me from the womb, and so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great.

18 Why came I forth out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

CHAPTER 21

1 The word which came to Yaram'Yahu from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), when King Tsadaqa'Yahu sent to him Pasha'khur son of Malaka'Yah, and Tsapana'Yah son of Ma'asha’Yah the ka’ahn (priest), to say:

2 Please inquire of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) for us, for Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal makes war against us: perhaps 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that He may go up from us.

3 Then Yaram'Yahu said to them, you shall tell Tsadaqa'Yahu:

4 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babal, and against the Kashad'ym who besiege you, without the walls, and I will gather them into the midst of this city.

5 And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation.

6 And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence.

7 Afterward, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), I will give Tsadaqa'Yahu king of Yahudah, and his servants, and the people, even such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their being: and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword, he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have compassion.

8 To this people you shall say, Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, I give before your face the way of khaYah (life) and the way of death.

9 He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence, but he who goes out, and passes over to the Kashad'ym who besiege you, he shall khaYah (abide), and his being shall be to him for a prey.

10 For I placed My face on this city for evil, and not for good, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babal, and he shall burn it with fire.

11 And to the house of the king of Yahudah, hear the Word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH):

12 O House of Dau'yad, thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Execute right ruling in the rising, and rescue him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest My wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

13 Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, of the rock of the plain, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), those who say: Who shall come down against us? Or who shall enter into our habitations?

14 And I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is around her.

CHAPTER 22

1 Thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Go down to the house of the king of Yahudah, and speak there this word,

2 And say: Hear the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), king of Yahudah, who sits on the throne of Dau'yad, you, and your servants, and your people who enter in by these gates.

3 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Execute right ruling and righteousness, and rescue him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence, to the foreigner, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.

4 For if you indeed do this, the word, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting on the throne of Dau'yad, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

5 But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that this house shall become a desolation.

6 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) concerning the house of the king of Yahudah: You are Gal'ad to Me, the head of Laba'nun, surely I will make you a wilderness, cities which are not inhabited.

7 And I will prepare destroyers against you, everyone with his weapons, and they shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.

8 Many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor: Why has 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) done thus to this great city?

9 Then they shall answer: Because they forsook the Bar'yath (covenant) OF 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Their ALUAH, and worshiped other idols and served them.

10 Do not weep for the dead, neither bemoan him, but weep bitterly for him who goes away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native land.

11 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) touching Shalam son of Ya'asha'Yahu, king of Yahudah, who reigned instead of Ya'asha'Yahu his father, who went forth out of this place: He shall not return there any more.

12 But in the place where they have led him captive, there shall he die, and he shall see this land no more.

13 Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his rooms by inright ruling, who uses his neighbor's service without wages, and does not give him his hire,

14 who says, I will build me a wide house and spacious rooms, and cuts him out windows, and it is ceiling with cedar, and painted with vermilion.

15 Shall you reign, because you strive to excel in cedar? Did your father not eat and drink, and do right ruling and righteousness? Then it was well with him.

16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy, then it was well. Was this not to know Me? says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

17 But your eyes and your heart are not but for your corrupt gain, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

18 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) concerning Yahu'yaq'yam son of Ya'asha'Yahu, king of Yahudah: they shall not lament for him: Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! They shall not lament for him: Ah Sovereign! or, Ah his esteem!

19 He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Yaru'shalam.

20 Go up to Laba'nun and cry, and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abara’ym, for all your lovers are destroyed.

21 I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, I will not hear. This has been your way from your youth, that you did not obey My voice.

22 The wind shall feed all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity: surely then you will be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness.

23 O Inhabitant in Laba'nun, who makes your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied you will be when pangs come on you, the pains as of a woman in travail!

24 As I Abide, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), though Kan'Yahu son of Yahu'yaq'yam king of Yahudah were the signet on my right hand, yet would I pluck you there,

25 and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your being, and into the hand of the faces of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal, and into the hand of the Kashad'ym.

26 And I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another land, where you were not born, and there you will die.

27 But to the land whereunto their being longs to return, there shall they not return.

28 Is this man Kan'Yahu a despised broken vessel? Is he a vessel in which none delights? Why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they do not know?

29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

30 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Write this, the man, childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days, for no more shall a man of his seed prosper, sitting on the throne of Dau'yad and ruling in Yahudah.

CHAPTER 23

1 Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

2 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL, 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 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

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

4 And I will raise up shepherds over them, who shall feed them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

5 Behold, the days come, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that I will raise to Dau'yad a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal discernedly, and shall execute right ruling and righteousness in the land.

6 In his days Yahudah shall be saved, and Yashar'AL shall abide safely, and this is his name by which he shall be called: 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Tsadaqa’nu (Our Righteousness).

7 Therefore behold, the days come, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that they shall no more say, As 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Abides, who brought up the children of Yashar'AL out of the land of Ma'tsara'ym,

8 But As 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Abides, who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Yashar'AL out of the north land, and from all the lands where I had driven them. And they shall dwell in their own land.

9 To the nab’a’ym (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 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and because of His Made Apart 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 nab’ya (prophet) and ka’ahn (priest) are profane. Yes, In My House have I found their wickedness, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

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 punishment, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

13 And I have seen folly in the nab’ya’ya (prophets) of Shamar’un (Shamar’oon), they nab’a (prophesied) by Ba'al, and caused my people Yashar'AL to err.

14 In the nab’a’ya (prophets) of Yaru'shalam also I have seen an atrocity: 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 like Sadam, and its inhabitants like Amarah.

15 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts concerning the nab’a’ym (prophets): Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of poison, for from the nab’a’ym (prophets) of Yaru'shalam is pollution gone forth into all the land.

16 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, Do not listen to the words of the nab’a’ym (prophets) who nab’a’ym (prophesy) to you: they teach you vanity, they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the Mouth of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

17 They say continually to those who despise Me, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has said, You shall have shalum (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 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that he should perceive and hear his word? who has marked my word, and heard it?

19 Behold, the storm of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), wrath is gone forth, and a whirling storm: It shall burst on the head of the wicked.

20 The anger of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) shall not return, until He has executed, and until He has performed the intents of His heart: in the latter days you shall understand it completely.

21 I sent not the nab’a’ym (prophets), yet they ran: I spoke not to them, yet they nab’a (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 an ALUAH nearby, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and not an ALUAH afar off?

24 Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH). Do I not fill shama'ym and earth? says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

25 I heard what the nab’a’ym (prophets) have said, who nab’a (prophesy) lies in My Name to say: I dreamed, I dreamed.

26 How long shall this be in the heart of the nab’a’ym (prophets) who nab’a (prophesy) lies, even the nab’a’ym (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 Ba'al.*

*This is the pagan title l-rd in the English today, hence why we do not call on this title or reference this word at all. Please also see Exodus 23:13

28 The nab’ya (prophet) who has a dream, let him tell a dream, and he who has My Word, let him speak My Word trustfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

29 Is not My Word like fire? says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

30 Therefore behold, I am against the nab’a’ym (prophets), says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), who steal My Words everyone from his neighbor.

31 Behold, I am against the nab’a’ym (prophets), says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), who use their tongues and say: He says.

32 Behold, I am against those who nab’a (prophesy) lying dreams, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and do tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting: Yet I did not send them, nor commanded them, neither do they profit this people at all, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

33 When this, the people, or the nab’ya (prophet), or a ka’ahn (priest), shall ask you saying: What is the burden of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)? Then you shall tell them, What burden! I will cast you off, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

34 And as for the nab’ya (prophet), and the ka’ahn (priest), and the people who say: The burden of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), I will even punish that man and his house.

35 Thus you shall say everyone to his neighbor, and everyone to his brother, What has 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) answered? And: What has 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) spoken?

36 You shall mention the burden of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) no more: for every man's own word shall be his burden, for you have perverted the words of the living ALUAH, of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts our ALUAH.

37 Thus you shall say to the nab’ya (prophet): What has 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) answered you? And: What has 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) spoken?

38 But if you say: The burden of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Because you say this word: The burden of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and I have sent to you saying, you shall not say, The burden of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH),

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 face:

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

CHAPTER 24

1 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs put before the Hayakal of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), after that Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal had carried away captive Ya’Kan'Yahu son of Yahu'yaq'yam, king of Yahudah, and the princes of Yahudah, with the craftsmen and smiths, from Yaru'shalam, and had brought them to Babal.

2 One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe, and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

3 Then 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) said to me: What do you see, Yaram'Yahu? And I said: Figs, the good figs, very good, and the bad, very bad, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad.

4 And the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came to me saying,

5 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: Like these good figs, so will I regard the captives of Yahudah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Kashad'ym, for good.

6 For I will put my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down, and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.

7 And I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): And they shall be My people, and I will be their ALUAH, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.

8 As the bad figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad, surely thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): So will I give up Tsadaqa'Yahu the king of Yahudah, and his princes, and the remnant of Yaru'shalam, who remain in this land, and those who abide in the land of Ma'tsara'ym,

9 And I will even give them up to be tossed back and forth among all the reigns of the earth for evil, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them.

10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, until they be consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.

CHAPTER 25

1 The word that came to Yaram'Yahu concerning all the people of Yahudah, in the fourth year of Yahu'yaq'yam son of Ya'asha'Yahu, king of Yahudah: That was the first year of Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal,

2 which Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet) spoke to all the people of Yahudah, and to all the inhabitants of Yaru'shalam saying:

3 From year thirteen of Ya'asha'Yahu son of Amun, king of Yahudah, even to this day, these twenty and three years, the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking, but you have not listened.

4 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has sent to you all his servants the nab’a’ym (prophets), rising up early and sending them, but you have not listened, nor inclined your ear to hear,

5 To say: Return now everyone from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and abide in the land that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has given to you and to your fathers, from of old and even forevermore,

6 and do not go after other idols to serve them or worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will do you no harm.

7 Yet you have not listened to Me, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that you may provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt.

8 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts: Because you have not heard My Words,

9 Behold, I will send and take all the families* of the north, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and Nabu'khad'natsar the king of Babal, My servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations around, and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and everlasting desolations.

*This can also translate as tribes

10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.

11 This whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babal seventy years.

12 And it shall be, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babal and that nation, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), for their iniquity, and the land of the Kashad'ym, and I will make it desolate forever.

13 And I will bring on that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this Book, which Yaram'Yahu has nab’a (prophesied) against all the nations.

14 For many nations and great kings shall make bondservants of them, even of them, and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the work of their hands.

15 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL, to me: Take this cup of the wine of wrath at My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it.

16 And they shall drink, and reel back and forth, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.

17 Then took I the cup at the hand of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) and made all the nations to drink, to whom 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) had sent me:

18 Yaru'shalam, and the cities of Yahudah, and its kings, and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day,

19 Para’ah king of Ma'tsara'ym, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people,

20 and all the mixed people, and all the kings of the land of the A’uts (Uh’oo’ts), and all the kings of the Palash’tha’ym, and Ash’qalun (Ash’qaloon), and Azah, and Aq’run (Aq’roon), and the remnant of Ash’dud,

21 Adum, and Mu'ab, and the children of Amun,

22 and all the kings of Tsar, and all the kings of Tsa’yadun (Tsa’ya’doon), and the kings of the isle which is beyond the sea,

23 Dadan, and Tha’yama, and Buz (Booz), and all who have the corners cut off,

24 and all the kings of Arab, and all the kings of the mixed people who dwell in the wilderness,

25 and all the kings of Zamara’ya, and all the kings of Ayalam, and all the kings of the Mada’ya,

26 and all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the reigns of the world, which are on the surface of the earth: and the king of Shashak shall drink after them.

27 And you shall tell them, Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: Drink and be drunk, vomit, fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.

28 And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at your hand to drink, then you shall tell them, Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts: You shall surely drink.

29 For behold, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by My Name, and should you be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished, for I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts.

30 Therefore you will nab’ya (prophesy) against them all these words and tell them: 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) will roar from on high and utter His voice from His Made Apart habitation, He will mightily roar against His fold, He will give a shout, as those who tread, against all the inhabitants of the earth.

31 Uproar shall come even to the end of the earth, for 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has a controversy with the nations, He will enter into judgment with all flesh: as for the wicked, He will give them to the sword, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

32 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts: Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great storm shall be raised up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

33 And the slain of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) shall be in that day from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried, they shall be dung on the surface of the ground.

34 Wail, you shepherds, and cry, and wallow, you leaders of the flock, for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are fully come, and you shall fall like a goodly vessel.

35 And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the leaders of the flock to escape.

36 A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the wailing of the leaders of the flock! for 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) lays waste their pasture.

37 The shalum (peaceful) folds are brought to silence because of the fierce anger of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

38 He has left His tabernacle like the lion, for their land is become an astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppression, and because of His fierce anger.

CHAPTER 26

1 In the beginning of the reign of Yahu'yaq'yam son of Ya'asha'Yahu, king of Yahudah, came this word from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) saying,

2 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Stand in the court of the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) and speak to all the cities of Yahudah, which come to worship in the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), all the words that I command you to speak to them, do not diminish a word.

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

4 And you shall tell them, thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): If you will not listen to Me, to walk in My Thur’ath, which I have put before you,

5 to listen to the words of My servants the nab’a’ym (prophets), whom I send to you, even rising up early and sending them, but you have not listened,

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

*See Verse 9 Below

7 And the ka’ahn’ym (priests) and the nab’a’ym (prophets) and all the people heard Yaram'Yahu speaking these words in the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

8 And it came to be, when Yaram'Yahu had made an end of speaking all that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the ka’ahn’ym (priests) and the nab’a’ym (prophets) and all the people laid hold on him saying: You shall surely die.

9 Why have you nab’a (prophesied) IN The Name OF 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Saying: This house shall be like Shalu,* and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant? All the people were gathered to Yaram'Yahu in the house of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

*Note The Masoretic difference here from in Verse 6 Above

10 When the princes of Yahudah heard these, the words, they came up from the king's house to the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and they sat in the entry of the new gate of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

11 Then spoke the ka’ahn’ym (priests) and the nab’a’ym (prophets) to the princes and to all the people, saying: This man is worthy of death, for he has nab’a (prophesied) against this city, as you have heard with your ears.

12 Then spoke Yaram'Yahu to all the princes and to all the people saying: 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) sent me to nab’a (prophesy) against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.

13 Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Your ALUAH, and 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) will repent Him of the evil that He has pronounced against you.

14 But as for me, behold, I am in your hand: Do with me as is good and right in your eyes.

15 Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves, and on this city, and on its inhabitants, for of a truth 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.

16 Then the princes and all the people said to the ka’ahn’ym (priests) and to the nab’a’ym (prophets): This man is not worthy of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH.

17 Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spoke to all the assembly of the people saying:

18 Mayaka’Yah the Mura’sha’tha’ya nab’a (prophesied) in the days of Khazaqa'Yahu king of Yahudah, and he spoke to all the people of Yahudah saying: Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts: Tsa'yun (Tsa'yoon) shall be plowed as a field, and Yaru'shalam shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.

19 Did Khazaqa'Yahu king of Yahudah and all Yahudah put him to death? Did he not fear 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) and entreat the favor of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) relented of the disaster which He had pronounced against them? Thus should we commit great evil against our own beings.

20 And there was also a man who nab’a (prophesied) in the name of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), Aura’Yahu son of Shama’Yahu from Qara’yath Ya’ara’ym, and he nab’a (prophesied) against this city and against this land according to all the words of Yaram'Yahu:

21 and when Yahu'yaq'yam the king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death, but when Aura’Yahu heard it, he was afraid and fled, and went into Ma'tsara'ym:

22 and Yahu'yaq'yam the king sent men into Ma'tsara'ym: AL’nathan son of Ak’bur, and certain men with him, into Ma'tsara'ym,

23 and they fetched forth Aura’Yahu out of Ma'tsara'ym, and brought him to Yahu'yaq'yam the king, who killed him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.

24 But the hand of Akh’yaqam son of Shapan was with Yaram'Yahu, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

CHAPTER 27

1  In the beginning of the reign of Yahu'Yaqam* son of Ya'asha'Yahu, king of Yahudah, came this word to Yaram'Yah** from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) saying,

*The Masoretic omits the yad in his name here

**The Masoretic sometimes omits the oo in his name, like right here

2 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) to me: Make bonds and bars, and put them on your neck,

3 and send them to the king of Adum, and to the king of Mu’ab, and to the king of the children of Amun, and to the king of Tsar, and to the king of Tsa’yadun, by the hand of the messengers who come to Yaru'shalam to Tsadaqa'Yahu king of Yahudah,

4 and give them a command to their sovereigns saying, Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL, You shall tell your sovereigns:

5 I have made the earth, the men and the beasts that are on the surface of the earth, by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and I give it to whom it seems right in My eyes.

6 Now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nabu'khad'natsar the king of Babal, My servant, and the beasts of the field also have I given him to serve him.

7 And all the nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the time of his own land come: and then many nations and great kings shall make him their bondservant.

8 And it will be, that the nation and the reign which will not serve the same Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babal, that nation will I punish, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

9 And you, you do not listen to your nab’ya’ym (prophets), nor to your diviners, nor to your dreams, nor to your soothsayers, nor to your sorcerers, who speak to you saying: You shall not serve the king of Babal:

10 for they nab’a (prophesy) a lie to you, to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out, and you should perish.

11 But the nation that shall bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babal and serve him, that will I let remain in their own land, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and they shall till it, and abide therein.

12 And I spoke to Tsadaqa'Yahu king of Yahudah according to all these words saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babal, and serve him and his people, and abide.

13 Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has spoken concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Babal?

14 Do not listen to the words of the nab’a’ym (prophets) who speak to you saying: You shall not serve the king of Babal, for they nab’a’ym (prophesy) a lie to you.

15 For I have not sent them, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), but they nab’a’ym (prophesy) to falsehood in My Name, that I may drive you out, and that you may perish, you and the nab’a’ym (prophets) who nab’a’ym (prophesy) to you.

16 Also I spoke to the ka’ahn’ym (priests) and to all this people saying, thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Do not listen to the words of your nab’ya’ya (prophets) who nab’a’ym (prophesy) to you saying: Behold, the vessels of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)'s House shall now shortly be brought again from Babal, for they nab’a’ym (prophesy) a lie to you.

17 Do not listen to them, serve the king of Babal and abide: Why should this city become a desolation?

18 But if they be nab’a’ym (prophets), and if the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) be with them, let them now make intercession to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and in the house of the king of Yahudah, and at Yaru'shalam, do not go to Babal.

19 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the remnant of the vessels that are left in this city,

20 which Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal did not take, when he carried away captive Yakun'Yah son of Yahu'Yaq'yam, king of Yahudah, from Yaru'shalam to Babal, and all the nobles of Yahudah and Yaru'shalam,

21 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL, concerning the vessels that are left in the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and in the house of the king of Yahudah, and at Yaru'shalam:

22 They shall be carried to Babal, and there shall they be, until the day that I visit them, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), then will I bring them up and restore them to this place.

CHAPTER 28

1 And it came to be in that year, in the beginning of the reign of Tsadaqa'Yahu king of Yahudah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Khanan'Yah son of Azur the nab’ya (prophet), who was of Gaba’un (Gaba’oon), spoke to me in the house of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), in the eyes of the ka’ahn’ym (priests) and of all the people saying,

2 Thus speaks 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL saying: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babal.

3 Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)'s House, that Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal took away from this place, and carried to Babal:

4 and I will bring again to this place Yakun'Yah son of Yahu'Yaq'yam, king of Yahudah, with all the captives of Yahudah, who went to Babal, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), for I will break the yoke of the king of Babal.

5 Then the nab’ya (prophet) Yaram'Yahu said to the nab’ya (prophet) Khanan'Yah in the eyes of the ka’ahn’ym (priests), and in the eyes of all the people who stood in the house of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH),

6 even the nab’ya (prophet) Yaram'Yahu said, So Be It: 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) do so, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) perform Your words that You have nab’a (prophesied), to bring again the vessels of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)'s House, and all them of the captivity, from Babal to this place.

7 Nevertheless hear you now this word that I speak in your ears, and in the ears of all the people:

8  The nab’ya’ym (prophets) who have been before me and before you of old nab’a (prophesied) against many lands, and against great reigns, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.

9 The nab’ya (prophet) who nab’a (prophesies) for shalum (peace), when the word of the nab’ya (prophet) shall happen, then shall the nab’ya (prophet) be known, that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has truly sent him.

10 Then Khanan'Yah the nab’ya (prophet) took the bar from off the nab’ya (prophet) Yaram'Yahu's neck and broke it.

11 And Khanan'Yah spoke in the eyes of all the people saying, Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Even so will I break the yoke of Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal within two full years from off the neck of all the nations. And the nab’ya (prophet) Yaram'Yahu went his way.

12 Then the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came to Yaram'Yahu, after that Khanan'Yah the nab’ya (prophet) had broken the bar from off the neck of the nab’ya (prophet) Yaram'Yahusaying,

13 Walk and tell Khanan'Yah saying, Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): You have broken the bars of wood, but you have made in their place bars of iron.

14 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal, and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also.

15 Then the nab’ya (prophet) Yaram'Yahu said to Khanan'Yah the nab’ya (prophet), Hear now, O Khanan'Yah: 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has not sent you, but you make this people to trust in a lie.

16 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, I will send you away from off the surface of the earth: this year you shall die, because you have spoken rebellion against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

17 So Khanan'Yah the nab’ya (prophet) died in that year, in the seventh month.

CHAPTER 29

1 Now these are the words of the letter that Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet) sent from Yaru'shalam to the remnant of the elders of the captivity, and to the ka’ahn’ym (priests), and to the nab’ya’ym (prophets), and to all the people, whom Nabu'khad'natsar had carried away captive from Yaru'shalam to Babal,

2 After that Yakan'Yah* the king, and the queen mother, and the eunuchs, the princes of Yahudah and Yaru'shalam, and the craftsmen, and the smiths, were departed from Yaru'shalam,

*Note The Masoretic change from 27:20

3 by the hand of AL’ashah son of Shapan, and Gamar’Yah son of Khalaqa’Yah, whom Tsadaqa'Yahu king of Yahudah sent to Babal to Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal saying,

4 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL, to all the captivity, whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Yaru'shalam to Babal:

5 Build houses and abide in them, and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them.

6 Take wives, and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply there, and do not be diminished.

7 Seek the shalum (peace) of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) for it, for in its shalum (peace) you shall have shalum (peace).

8 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: Do not let your nab’ya’ya (prophets) who are in the midst of you, and your diviners deceive you, neither listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.

9 For they nab’a’ym (prophesy) in falsehood to you in My Name: I have not sent them, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

10 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): After seventy years are accomplished for Babal, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), thoughts of shalum (peace) and not for evil, to give to you all future and an expectancy.

12 And you shall call on Me, and you shall go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

13 And you shall seek Me and find Me, when you shall search for Me with all your heart.

14 And I will be found by you, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and I will turn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and I will bring you again to the place from where I caused you to be carried away captive.

15 Because you have said, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has raised us up nab’a’ym (prophets) in Babal,

16 thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) concerning the king who sits on the throne of Dau'yad, and concerning all the people who abide in this city, your brothers who have not gone forth with you into captivity,

17 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts: Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, from calamity.

18 And I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will give them to be tossed back and forth among all the reigns of the earth, to be an object of horror, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations where I have driven them,

19 because they have not listened to My words, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), with which I sent to them My servants the nab’a’ym (prophets), rising up early and sending them, but you would not hear, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

20 Hear therefore the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), all you of the captivity, whom I have sent away from Yaru'shalam to Babal.

21 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, the ALUAH of Yashar'AL, concerning Akh'ab son of Qula’Yah, and concerning Tsadaqa'Yahu son of Ma’asha’Yah, who nab’a’ym (prophesy) a lie to you in My Name: Behold, I will give them into the hand of Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal, and he shall smite them before your eyes,

22 and of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captives of Yahudah who are in Babal saying, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) make you like Tsadaqa'Yahu and like Akh'ab, whom the king of Babal roasted in the fire,

23 because they have worked folly in Yashar'AL, and have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken words in My Name falsely, which I did not command them, and I am He who knows, and am witness, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

24 And to Shama’Yahu the Na'khalama'ya you shall speak saying,

25 Thus speaks 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, the ALUAH of Yashar'AL saying: Because you have sent letters in your own name to all the people who are at Yaru'shalam, and to Tsapana'Yah son of Ma'asha'Yah, the ka’ahn (priest), and to all the ka’ahn’ym (priests) saying,

26 Ka’ahn(Priest) has 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) made you  in the place of Yahu’yada the ka’ahn (priest), that there may be officers in the house of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), for every man who is mad, and makes himself a mad’ya (prophet), that you should put him in the stocks and in shackles.

27 Now therefore, why have you not rebuked Yaram'Yahu of Anath’ath’ya, who makes himself a nab’ya (prophet) to you,

28 because he has sent to us in Babal saying, That is long: Build houses and abide in them, and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them?

29 And Tsapana'Yah the ka’ahn (priest) read this letter in the ears of Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet).

30 Then came the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) to Yaram'Yahu saying,

31 Send to all them of the captivity saying, Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) concerning Shama'Yah the Na'khalama'ya: Because Shama'Yah has nab’a (prophesied) to you, and I did not send him, and he has caused you to trust in a lie,

32 therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, I will punish Shama'Yah the Na'khalama'ya, and his seed, he shall not have a man to abide among this people, neither shall he see the good that I will do to my people, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), because he has spoken rebellion against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

CHAPTER 30

1 The word that came to Yaram'Yahu from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) saying,

2 Thus speaks 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL saying: Write all the words that I have spoken to you in a Book.

3 For behold, the days come, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that I will turn again the captivity of my people Yashar'AL and Yahudah, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.

4 And these are the words that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) spoke concerning Yashar'AL and concerning Yahudah.

5 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of shalum (peace).

6 Ask now and see whether a male does travail with child: Why do I see every mighty man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned to paleness?

7 Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time for Ya'aqab's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.

8 And it shall come to pass in that day, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and will burst your bonds, and strangers shall no more make him their bondservant,

9 But they shall serve 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Their ALUAH, and Dau'yad their king, whom I will raise up to them.

10 And you, you do not fear, O Ya'aqab My servant, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), neither be dismayed, Yashar'AL: For behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity, and Ya'aqab shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.

11 For I am with you, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), to save you: For I will make a full end of all the nations where I have scattered you, but I will not make a full end of you, but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished.

12 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Your hurt is incurable, and your wound grievous.

13 There is none to plead your cause, that you may be bound up: you have no healing medicines.

14 All your lovers have forgotten you, they do not seek you: For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the greatness of your iniquity, because your transgressions were increased.

15 Why do you cry for your hurt? Your pain is incurable: For the greatness of your iniquity, because your transgressions were increased, I have done these to you.

16 Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured, and all your adversaries, everyone of them, shall go into captivity, and those who plunder you shall be a plunder, and all who prey on you will I give for a prey.

17 For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), because they have called you an outcast: It is Tsa'yun, whom no man seeks after.

18 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, I will turn again the captivity of Ya'aqab's tents, and have compassion on his abiding places, and the city shall be built on its mound, and the palace shall be inhabited in its own way.

19 Out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of those who make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few, I will also esteem them, and they shall not be small.

20 And their children also shall be as before, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all who oppress them.

21 And their Prince shall be of themselves, and their ruler shall proceed from the midst of them, and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach to Me: for who is he who pledged his heart to approach Me? says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

22 And you will be My people, and I will be Your ALUAH.

23 Behold, the storm of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), wrath is gone forth, a sweeping storm: It shall burst on the head of the wicked.

24 The fierce anger of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) will not return until He has executed, and until He has performed the intentions of his heart: In the latter days we will understand it.

CHAPTER 31

1 At that time, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), will I be the ALUAH of all the families* of Yashar'AL, and they shall be My people.

*Can also say clans

2 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): The people who were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness, even Yashar'AL, when I went to cause him to rest.

3 From afar has 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) appeared to me: And I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.

4 Again will I build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Yashar'AL: again you shall be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go forth in the dances of those who make merry.

5 Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Shamar’un (Shamar’oon), the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy.

6 For there shall be a day, that the watchmen in Mount Apara'ym shall cry: Arise, and let us go up to Tsa'yun to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH.

7 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Sing with gladness for Ya'aqab, and shout for the chief of the nations: publish, praise, and say, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), save Your people, the remnant of Yashar'AL.

8 Behold, I will bring them from the north land and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together: a great company shall they return here.

9 They shall come with weeping, and with petitions will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Yashar'AL, and Apara'ym is my firstborn.

10 Hear the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), O nations, and declare it in the islands afar off and say: He who scattered Yashar'AL will gather him and keep him, as a shepherd his flock.

11 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has ransomed Ya'aqab and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.

12 They shall come and sing in the height of Tsa'yun, and shall flow to the goodness of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their being shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all.

13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together, for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

14 And I will satiate the being of the ka’ahn’ym (priests) with abundance, and my people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

15 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rakhal weeping for her children, she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.

16 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for your work shall be rewarded, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.

17 There is expectancy for your latter end, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and children shall come again to their own border.

18 I have surely heard Apara'ym bemoaning himself: You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed: turn me, and I shall be turned, For You Are 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) MY ALUAH.

19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented, and after that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh: I was ashamed, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.

20 Is Apara'ym the esteemed son to Me, though a child of delight? For as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore My heart yearns for him, I will surely have pity, compassion on him, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

21 Put up signposts, make guideposts, place your heart toward the guide post, even the way by which you went: turn again, O virgin of Yashar'AL, turn again to these your cities.

22 How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has created new in the earth: a woman shall encompass a man.

23 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL, Yet again shall they use this, the word, in the land of Yahudah and in its cities, when I shall bring again their captivity: 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Barak you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of Made Apartness.

24 And Yahudah and all its cities shall abide therein together, farmers and those who go about with flocks.

25 For I have satiated the weary being, and every sorrowful being have I replenished.

26 On this I awoke and saw, and my sleep was sweet to me.

27 Behold, the days come, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that I will sow the house of Yashar'AL and the house of Yahudah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.

28 And it will be that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

29 In those days they shall say no more: The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are dull.

30 But everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be dull.

31 Behold, the days come, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that I will make a new Bar'yath (covenant) with the house of Yashar'AL, and with the house of Yahudah:

32 not according to the Bar'yath (covenant) that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Ma'tsara'ym, which my Bar'yath (covenant) they broke, although I was a Husband to them, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

33 But this is the Bar'yath (covenant) that I will make with the house of Yashar'AL after those days, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): I will put My Thur’ath in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it, and I will be their ALUAH, and they shall be My people:

34 and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother saying, Know 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): For I will forgive their iniquity, and their transgression will I not remember forever.

35 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts is His Name:

36 If these ordinances depart from before me, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), then the seed of Yashar'AL also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.

37 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): If shama'ym above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then will I also cast off all the seed of Yashar'AL for all that they have done, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

38 Behold, the days come, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that the city shall be built to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) from the tower of Khanan'AL to the gate of the corner.

39 And the measuring line shall go out further straight onward to the hill Garab, and shall turn about to Ga’thah.

40 And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Qadar’un (Qadar’oon), to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be Made Apart to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more to forever.

CHAPTER 32

1 The word that came to Yaram'Yahu from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) in the tenth year of Tsadaqa'Yahu king of Yahudah, which was the eighteenth year of Nabu'khad'natsar.

2 Now at that time the king of Babal's army was besieging Yaru'shalam, and Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet) was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king of Yahudah's house.

3 For Tsadaqa'Yahu king of Yahudah had shut him up saying, why do you nab’a (prophesy) to say, thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babal, and he shall take it,

4 and Tsadaqa'Yahu king of Yahudah shall not escape out of the hand of the Kashad'ym, but shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babal, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall see his eyes,

5 and he shall bring Tsadaqa'Yahu to Babal, and he shall be there until I visit him, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): though you fight with the Kashad'ym, you shall not prosper?

6 And Yaram'Yahu said, the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came to me saying,

7 Behold, Khanam'AL son of Shalam, uncle,  shall come to you saying, buy my field that is in Anath'uth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.

8 So Khanam'AL my uncle's son came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and said to me, please buy my field that is in Anath'uth, which is in the land of Ban'yama’yan,* for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours, buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

*Note The Masoretic difference here

9 And I bought the field that was in Anath'uth of Khanam'AL my uncle's son, and weighed him the silver, even seventeen shaqal’ym of silver.

10 And I subscribed the deed, and sealed it, and called witnesses, and weighed him the silver in the balances.

11 So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, containing the commandment and decree, and that which was open,

12 and I gave the deed of the purchase to Baruk son of Nara'Yah, son of Makhasa'Yah, to the eyes of Khanam'AL my uncle's son, and to the eyes of the witnesses who subscribed the deed of the purchase, before all the Yahud’ym who sat in the court of the guard.

13 And I commanded Baruk before them saying,

14 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days.

15 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land.

16 Now after I had brought the deed of the purchase to Baruk son of Nara'Yah, I prayed to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) saying,

17 Ah Sovereign 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)! Behold, you have made the shama'ym and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm, there is nothing too hard for You,

18 who show loving kindness to thousands, and recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them, the great, the mighty AL, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts is His Name,

19 great in counsel, and mighty in work, whose eyes are open on all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:

20 who performed signs and wonders in the land of Ma'tsara'ym, even to this day, both in Yashar'AL and among men, and made Yourself A Name, as in this day,

21 and brought forth your people Yashar'AL out of the land of Ma'tsara'ym with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great reverence,

22 and gave them this land, which you swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey,

23 and they came in, and possessed it, but they did not obey Your voice, neither walked in Your Thur’ath, they have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do: therefore You have caused all this, the evil, to come on them.

24 Behold, the mounds, they are come to the city to take it, and the city is given into the hand of the Kashad'ym who fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence, and what you have spoken has happened, and behold, You see it.

25 You have said to me, O Sovereign 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Buy the field for silver and call witnesses, whereas the city is given into the hand of the Kashad'ym.

26 Then came the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) to Yaram'Yahu saying,

27 Behold, I am 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), The ALUAH of all flesh: Is there any matter too hard for Me?

28 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Kashad'ym, and into the hand of Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal, and he shall take it:

29 and the Kashad'ym, who fight against this city, shall come and place this city on fire, and burn it, with the houses, on whose roofs they have offered incense to Ba’al, and poured out drink offerings to other idols, to provoke Me to anger.

30 For the children of Yashar'AL and the children of Yahudah have done only that which was evil in My sight from their youth, for the children of Yashar'AL have only provoked Me to anger with the work of their hands, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

31 For this city has been to me a provocation of My anger and of My wrath from the day that they built it even to this day, that I should remove it from before my face,

32 Because of all the evil of the children of Yashar'AL and of the children of Yahudah, which they have done to provoke Me to anger: they, their kings, their princes, their ka’ahn’ym (priests), and their nab’ya’ya (prophets) , and the men of Yahudah, and the inhabitants of Yaru'shalam.

33 And they have turned to Me the back, and not the face: And though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction.

34 But they put their abominations in the House which is called by My Name, to defile it.

35 And they built the high places of Ba’al, which are in the valley of son of Hamam, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through to malak, which I did not command them, neither did it come into My heart, that they should do this abomination, to cause Yahudah transgression.

36 Now therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL, concerning this city, about which you say, it is given into the hand of the king of Babal by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence:

37 Behold, I will gather them out of all the lands, where I have driven them in My anger, and in My wrath, and in great indignation, and I will bring them again to this place, and I will cause them to abide safely:

38 and they shall be My people, and I will be their ALUAH:

39 and I will give them one heart and one way, that they fear Me forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:

40 and I will make an everlasting Bar'yath (covenant) with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good, and I will put My fear in their hearts, that they will not depart from Me.

41 And I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land in truth with all My heart and with all My being.

42 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): As that I have brought all this great evil on this, the people, so will I bring on them all the good that I have promised them.

43 Fields shall be bought in this land, about which you say, it is desolate, without man or beast, it is given into the hand of the Kashad'ym.

44 Men shall buy fields with silver, and subscribe the deeds, and seal them, and call witnesses, in the land of Ban'yaman, and in the places about Yaru'shalam, and in the cities of Yahudah, and in the cities of the mountain, and in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South: For I will turn back their captivity, declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

CHAPTER 33

1 Moreover the Word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came to Yaram'Yahu a second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the guard saying,

2 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) who does it, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) who forms to establish it, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Is His Name:

3 Call to Me, and I will answer you, and will show to you great and fortified, that you do not know.

4 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Yahudah, which are broken down against the mounds and against the sword,

5 They come to fight with the Kashad'ym, and to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I slew in My anger and in My wrath, and for all whose wickedness I have hidden My face from this city:

6 Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and I will reveal to them abundance of shalum (peace) and truth.

7 And I will turn back the captivity of Yahudah and the captivity of Yashar'AL and will build them, as in the first.

8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, by which they have transgressed against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities, by which they have sinned against Me, and by which they have transgressed against Me.

9 And it shall be to Me for a name of joy, for a praise and for splendor, before all the nations of the earth, that shall hear all the good that I do to them, and shall fear and tremble for all the good and for all the shalum (peace) that I perform for it.

10 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Yet again there shall be heard in this place, about which you say, it is waste, without man and without beast, even in the cities of Yahudah, and in the streets of Yaru'shalam, that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast,

11 The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say: Give thanks to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, for 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) is good, for His loving kindness endures forever, who bring thanksgiving into the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH). For I will cause the captivity of the land to return as in the first, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

12 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts: Yet again shall there be in this place, which is waste, without man and without beast, and in all its cities, a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.

13 In the cities of the mountain, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South, and in the land of Ban'yaman, and in the places around Yaru'shalam, and in the cities of Yahudah, shall the flocks again pass under the hands of him who numbers them, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

14 Behold, the days come, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that I will perform that good word that I have spoken concerning the house of Yashar'AL and concerning the house of Yahudah.

15 In those days, and at that time, will I cause a Branch of righteousness to grow up to Dau'yad, and he shall execute right ruling and righteousness in the land.

16 In those days shall Yahudah be saved, and Yaru'shalam shall abide safely, and this is that which she shall be called: 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Tsadaqa’nu (Our Righteousness).

17 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): For Dau'yad there is not to cease a man to sit on the throne of the house of Yashar’AL.

18 Neither shall the ka’ahn’ym (priests) the Lu’ym Loo’ym) cease a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, and to burn meal offerings, and to slaughter all the days.

19 The word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came to Yaram'Yahu saying,

20 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): If you can break My Bar'yath (covenant) of the day, and My Bar'yath (covenant) of the night, so that there shall not be day and night in their season,

21 Then also will My Bar'yath (covenant) be broken with Dau'yad My servant, that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Lu'ym the ka’ahn’ym (priests), My attendants.

22 As the host of the sky cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of Dau'yad My servant, and the Lu'ym who attend unto Me.

23 The word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came to Yaram'Yahu saying,

24 Do not consider what this people has spoken saying, the two families* that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) did choose, He has cast them off? Thus do they despise My people, that they should be no more a nation before them.

*This can also be translated as clans

25 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): If my Bar'yath (covenant) of day and night fails, if I have not appointed the ordinances of shama'ym and earth,

26 Then will I also cast away the seed of Ya'aqub (Ya’uh’qoob),* and of Dau'yad My servant, so that I will not take of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abara’ahm, Ya’shakhaq, and Ya'aqab:* for I will turn back their captivity and have compassion on them.

*Note The Masoretic difference here with the name Jacob, and how an oo is inserted in one place but then removed in the other, all within the same verse

CHAPTER 34

1 The word which came to Yaram'Yahu from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), when Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal, and all his army, and all the reigns of the earth that were under his rule, and all the peoples were fighting against Yaru'shalam, and against all the cities of itsaying:

2 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: Walk and speak to Tsadaqa'Yahu king of Yahudah, and tell him thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babal, and he shall burn it with fire:

3 and you shall not escape out of his hand, but shall surely be taken, and given into his hand, and your eyes shall see the eyes of the king of Babal, and he shall speak with you mouth to mouth, and you shall go to Babal.

4 Yet hear the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), O Tsadaqa'Yahu king of Yahudah: thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) concerning you, you shall not die by the sword,

5 you shall die in shalum (peace), and with the burnings of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so shall they make a burning for you, and they shall lament you: Ah Sovereign! For I have spoken the word, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

6 Then Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet) spoke all these words to Tsadaqa'Yahu king of Yahudah in Yaru'shalam,

7 when the king of Babal's army was fighting against Yaru'shalam, and against all the cities of Yahudah that were left, against Lak’yash and against Azaqah, for these remained of the cities of Yahudah, fortified cities.

8 The word that came to Yaram'Yahu from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), after that the king Tsadaqa'Yahu had made a Bar'yath (covenant) with all the people who were at Yaru'shalam, to proclaim release to them,

9 that every man should let his male servant, and every man his female servant, who is an Abar’ya or an Abar’Yah, go free, that none should make bondservants of them, of a Yahud’ya his brother.

10 And all the princes and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the Bar'yath (covenant), that everyone should let his male servant, and everyone his female servant, go free, that none should make bondservants of them any more, they obeyed, and let them go:

11 but afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

12 Therefore the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came to Yaram'Yahu from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) saying,

13 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), the ALUAH of Yashar'AL: I made a Bar'yath (covenant) with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Ma'tsara'ym, out of the house of bondage saying,

14 At the end of seven years you shall let go every man his brother who is an Abar’ya, who has been sold to you, and has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you: but your fathers did not listen to Me, neither inclined their ear.

15 You had now turned, and had done that which is right in my eyes, in proclaiming release every man to his neighbor, and you had made a Bar'yath (covenant) before Me in the house which is called by My Name:

16 but you turned and profaned My Name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom you had let go free at their pleasure to return, and you brought them into subjection, to be to you for servants and for handmaids.

17 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): You have not listened to Me, to proclaim release, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: Behold, I proclaim to you a release, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine, and I will make you to be tossed back and forth among all the reigns of the earth.

18 And I will give the men who have transgressed My Bar'yath (covenant), who have not performed the words of the Bar'yath (covenant) which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts,

19 the princes of Yahudah, and the princes of Yaru'shalam, the eunuchs, and the ka’ahn’ym (priests), and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf,

20 And I will give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their being, and their dead bodies shall be for food to the birds of the sky, and to the beasts of the earth.

21 And Tsadaqa'Yahu king of Yahudah and his princes will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their being, and into the hand of the king of Babal's army, who have gone away from you.

22 Behold, I will command, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and cause them to return to this city, and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Yahudah a desolation, without inhabitant.

CHAPTER 35

1 The word which came to Yaram'Yahu from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) in the days of Yahu'Yaq'yam son of Ya'asha'Yahu king of Yahudah saying,

2 Go to the house of the Rakab’ym, and speak to them, and bring them into the house of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), into one of the rooms, and give them wine to drink.

3 Then I took Ya’azan’Yah son of Yaram'Yahu, son of Kha’batsan’Yah, and his brothers, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rakab'ym,

4 and I brought them into the house of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), into the room of the sons of Khanan son of Ya’gadal’Yahu, the man of ALUAH, which was by the room of the princes, which was above the room of Ma'asha'Yah son of Shalam, the keeper of the threshold.

5 And I put before the sons of the house of the Rakab'ym bowls full of wine, and cups, and I said to them: Drink wine!

6 But they said: We will drink no wine, for Yahu'nadab son of Rakab, our father, commanded us saying, you shall drink no wine, neither you, nor your sons, forever:

7 neither shall you build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any, but all your days you shall abide in tents, that you may live many days in the land in which you abide.

8 We have obeyed the voice of Yahu'nadab son of Rakab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days: we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters,

9 nor to build houses for us to abide in, neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:

10 but we have abided in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Yahu'nadab our father commanded us.

11 And it came to be, when Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal came up into the land, that we said: Come, and let us go to Yaru'shalam for fear of the army of the Kashad'ym, and for fear of the army of Aram, so we abide in Yaru'shalam.

12 Then came the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) to Yaram'Yahu saying,

13 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, the ALUAH of Yashar'AL: Walk and tell the men of Yahudah and the inhabitants of Yaru'shalam, will you not receive instruction to listen to My Words? says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

14 The words of Yahu'nadab son of Rakab, that he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, are performed, and to this day they drink none, for they obey their father's commandment: But I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking, and you have not listened to Me.

15 And I have sent to you all my servants the nab’a’ym (prophets), rising up early and sending them saying, Return now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and do not go after other idols to serve them, and you shall abide in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but you have not inclined your ear, nor listened to Me.

16 Because the sons of Yahu'nadab son of Rakab have performed the commandment of their father which he commanded them, but this people has not listened to Me,

17 therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), the ALUAH of hosts, the ALUAH of Yashar'AL: Behold, I will bring on Yahudah and on all the inhabitants of Yaru'shalam all the evil that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them, but they have not heard, and I have called to them, but they have not answered.

18 And Yaram'Yahu said to the house of the Rakab'ym, thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: Because you have obeyed the commandment of Yahu'nadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according to all that he commanded you,

19 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: A man for Yahu’nadab son of Rakab is not cut off, standing to My face all the days.

CHAPTER 36

1 And it came to be in the fourth year of Yahu'Yaq'yam son of Ya'asha'Yahu king of Yahudah, that this word came to Yaram'Yahu from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) saying,

2 Take a scroll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken to you against Yashar'AL, and against Yahudah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Ya'asha'Yahu even to this day.

3 It could be that the house of Yahudah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do to them, that they may return every man from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their transgression.

4 Then Yaram'Yahu called Baruk son of Nara'Yah, and Baruk wrote from the mouth of Yaram'Yahu all the words of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) that He had spoken to him, on a scroll of a book.

5 And Yaram'Yahu commanded Baruk saying: I am shut up, I cannot go into the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH):

6 Therefore you go and read in the scroll, which you have written from my mouth, the words of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) in the ears of the people in 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)'s House on the fast day, and also you shall read them in the ears of all Yahudah who come out of their cities.

7 It could be they will cast down their supplication before 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and will return everyone from his evil way, for great is the anger and the wrath that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has pronounced against this people.

8 And Baruk son of Nara'Yah did according to all that Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet) commanded him, reading in the Book the words of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) in 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)'s House.

9 And it came to be in the fifth year of Yahu'Yaq'yam son of Ya'asha'Yahu king of Yahudah, in the ninth month, that all the people in Yaru'shalam, and all the people who came from the cities of Yahudah to Yaru'shalam, proclaimed a fast before 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

10 Then read Baruk in the book the words of Yaram'Yahu in the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), in the room of Gamar'Yahu son of Shapan, the scribe, in the upper court, at the entry of the new gate of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)'s House, in the ears of all the people.

11 And when Maka'Yahu son of Gamar'Yahu, son of Shapan, had heard out of the Book all the words of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH),

12 he went down into the king's house, into the scribe's room: and behold, all the princes were sitting there: AL'ya'shama the scribe, and Dal'Yahu son of Shama'Yah, and AL'nathan son of Akbur, and Gamar'Yahu son of Shapan, and Tsadaqa'Yahu son of Khanan'Yah, and all the princes.

13 Then Maka'Yahu declared to them all the words that he had heard, when Baruk read the book in the ears of the people.

14 Therefore all the princes sent Yahud'ya son of Nathan'Yahu, son of Shalam'Yahu, son of Kush’ya, to Baruk saying: Take in your hand the scroll in which you have read in the ears of the people and come. So Baruk son of Nara'Yah took the scroll in his hand and came to them.

15 And they said to him: Sit down now and read it in our ears. So Baruk read it in their ears.

16 And it came to be, when they had heard all the words, they turned in fear one toward another, and said to Baruk: We will surely tell the king of all these words.

17 And they asked Baruk saying: Tell us now, How did you write all these words at his mouth?

18 Then Baruk answered them, he pronounced all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the Book.

19 Then the princes said to Baruk: Walk, hide, you and Yaram'Yahu, and let no man know where you are.

20 And they went in to the king into the court, but they had laid up the scroll in the room of AL'ya'shama the scribe, and they told all the words in the ears of the king.

21 So the king sent Yahud'ya to get the scroll, and he took it out of the room of AL'ya'shama the scribe. And Yahud'ya read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes who stood beside the king.

22 Now the king was sitting in the autumn house in the ninth month: and the brazier burning before him.

23 And it came to be, when Yahud'ya had read three or four columns, that he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.

24 They were not afraid, nor tore their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants who heard all these words.

25 Moreover AL'nathan and Dal'Yahu and Gamar'Yahu had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the scroll, but he would not hear them.

26 And the king commanded Ya'rakham'AL the king's son, and Shara’Yahu son of Azar’ya’AL, and Shalam'Yahu son of Abada’AL, to take Baruk the scribe and Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet), but 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) hid them.

27 Then the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came to Yaram'Yahu, after that the king had burned the scroll, and the words which Baruk wrote at the mouth of Yaram'Yahu saying,

28 Take again another scroll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Yahu'Yaq'yam the king of Yahudah has burned.

29 Concerning Yahu'Yaq'yam king of Yahudah you shall say, thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): You have burned this scroll saying, why have you written therein saying, the king of Babal shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from there man and beast?

30 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) concerning Yahu'Yaq'yam king of Yahudah: He shall have none to sit on the throne of Dau'yad, and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.

31 And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity, and I will bring on them, and on the inhabitants of Yaru'shalam, and on the men of Yahudah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they did not listen.

32 Then took Yaram'Yahu another scroll, and gave it to Baruk the scribe, son of Nara'Yah, who wrote therein from the mouth of Yaram'Yahu all the words of the book which Yahu'Yaq'yam king of Yahudah had burned in the fire, and there were added besides to them many like words.

CHAPTER 37

1 And Tsadaqa'Yahu son of Ya'asha'Yahu reigned as king, instead of Kan’Yahu son of Yahu'Yaq'yam, whom Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal made king in the land of Yahudah.

2 But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, listened to the words of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), which he spoke by the nab’ya (prophet) Yaram'Yahu.

3 And Tsadaqa'Yahu the king sent Yahu’kal son of Shalam'Yahu, and Tsapana'Yah son of Ma'asha'Yah, the ka’ahn (priest), to the nab’ya (prophet) Yaram'Yahu saying: Pray now to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH for us.

4 Now Yaram'Yahu came in and went out among the people, for they had not put him into prison.

5 And Para'ah's army was come forth out of Ma'tsara'ym, and when the Kashad'ym who were besieging Yaru'shalam heard news of them, they withdrew from Yaru'shalam.

6 Then came the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) to the nab’ya (prophet) Yaram'Yahu saying,

7 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL, You shall tell the king of Yahudah, who sent you to me to inquire of me: Behold, Para'ah's army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Ma'tsara'ym into their own land.

8 And the Kashad'ym shall come again, and fight against this city, and they shall take it, and burn it with fire.

9 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Do not deceive yourselves saying, the Kashad'ym shall surely depart from us, for they shall not depart.

10 For though you had struck the whole army of the Kashad'ym who fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, would they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.

11 And it came to be that, when the army of the Kashad'ym was broken up from Yaru'shalam for fear of Para'ah's army,

12 then Yaram'Yahu went forth out of Yaru'shalam to go into the land of Ban'yaman, to receive his portion there, in the midst of the people.

13 When he was in the gate of Ban'yaman, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Yara’ya’Yah, son of Shalam'Yahu, son of Khanan'Yah, and he laid hold on Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet) saying, you are falling away to the Kashad'ym.

14 Then Yaram'Yahu said: It is false, I am not falling away to the Kashad'ym. But he did not listen to him, so Yara'ya'Yah laid hold on Yaram'Yahu, and brought him to the princes.

15 And the princes were angry with Yaram'Yahu and struck him, and put him in prison in the house of Yahu'nathan the scribe, for they had made that the prison.

16 When Yaram'Yahu was come into the dungeon house, and into the cells, and Yaram'Yahu had remained there many days,

17 Then Tsadaqa'Yahu the king sent and fetched him: and the king asked him secretly in his house and said: Is there any word from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)? And Yaram'Yahu said, there is. He said also, You shall be given into the hand of the king of Babal.

18 Moreover Yaram'Yahu said to king Tsadaqa'Yahu: Wherein have I transgressed against you, or against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison?

19 Where now are your nab’ya’ya (prophets) who nab’a (prophesied) to you saying: The king of Babal shall not come against you, nor against this land?

20 Now please hear, my sovereign the king: please let my supplication to your face, that you not cause me to return to the house of Yahu'nathan the scribe, lest I die there.

21 Then Tsadaqa'Yahu the king commanded, and they committed Yaram'Yahu into the court of the guard, and they gave him daily a loaf of bread out of the bakers' street, until all the bread in the city was spent. Thus Yaram'Yahu remained in the court of the guard.

CHAPTER 38

1 And Shapata'Yah son of Mathan, and Gadal'Yahu son of Pasha'khur, and Yahu’kal son of Shalam'Yahu, and Pasha'khur son of Malak'Yah, heard the words that Yaram'Yahu spoke to all the people saying,

2 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, but he who goes forth to the Kashad'ym shall abide, and his being shall be to him for a prey, and he shall abide.

3 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babal, and he shall take it.

4 Then the princes said to the king, "Please let this man be put to death, because he weakens the hands of the men of war who remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words to them: for this man does not seek the welfare of this people, but the hurt."

5 And Tsadaqa'Yahu the king said: Behold, he is in your hand, for the king is not he who can do anything against you.

6 Then took they Yaram'Yahu and cast him into the dungeon of Malak'Yah the king's son, that was in the court of the guard: and they let down Yaram'Yahu with cords. In the dungeon there was no water but mire, and Yaram'Yahu sank in the mire.

7 Now when Abada Malak the Kush'ya, a eunuch man, who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Yaram'Yahu in the dungeon, the king then sitting in the gate of Ban'yaman,

8 And Abada Malak went forth out of the king's house, and spoke to the king saying,

9 My sovereign the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet), whom they have cast into the dungeon, and he is to die in the place where he is, because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city.

10 Then the king commanded Abada Malak the Kush'ya saying, take from here thirty men with you, and take up Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet) out of the dungeon, before he dies.

11 So Abada Malak took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took there rags and old garments, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Yaram'Yahu.

12 And Abada Malak the Kush'ya said to Yaram'Yahu: Put now these rags and old garments under your armpits* under the cords. And Yaram'Yahu did so.

*Root word translation is yad to mean hand

13 So they drew up Yaram'Yahu with the cords, and took him up out of the dungeon: and Yaram'Yahu remained in the court of the guard.

14 Then Tsadaqa'Yahu the king sent, and took Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet) to him into the third entry that is in the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): and the king said to Yaram'Yahu, I will ask you a word. Hide nothing from me.

15 Then Yaram'Yahu said to Tsadaqa'Yahu: If I declare it to you, will you not surely put me to death? And if I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.

16 So Tsadaqa'Yahu the king swore secretly to Yaram'Yahu saying, as 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Abides, who made us this being, I will not put you to death, neither will I give you into the hand of these men who seek your being.

17 Then Yaram'Yahu said to Tsadaqa'Yahu, thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), The ALUAH of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: If you will go forth to the king of Babal's princes, then your being shall abide, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and you shall abide, and your house.

18 But if you will not go forth to the king of Babal's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Kashad'ym, and they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape out of their hand.

19 And Tsadaqa'Yahu the king said to Yaram'Yahu, I am afraid of the Yahud’ym who are fallen away to the Kashad'ym, lest they give me into their hand, and they mock me.

20 But Yaram'Yahu said, they shall not give you. Obey, I beg you, the voice of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), in that which I speak to you: so it shall be well with you, and your being shall abide.

21 But if you refuse to go forth, this is the word that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has shown me:

22 Behold, all the women who are left in the king of Yahudah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babal's princes, and those women shall say: Your acquaintances have enticed you, and have prevailed over you: your feet are sunk in the mire, they are turned away back.

23 They shall bring out all your wives and your children to the Kashad'ym, and you shall not escape out of their hand, but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babal: and you shall cause this city to be burned with fire.

24 Then Tsadaqa'Yahu said to Yaram'Yahu: Let no man know of these words, and you shall not die.

25 But if the princes hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you and tell you, declare to us now what you have said to the king, do not hide it from us, and we will not put you to death, also what the king said to you:

26 then you shall tell them, I casted my supplication to the face of the king, that he would not cause me to return to Yahu'nathan's house, to die there.

27 Then came all the princes to Yaram'Yahu and asked him, and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him, for the word was not heard.

28 So Yaram'Yahu stayed in the court of the guard until the day that Yaru'shalam was taken.

CHAPTER 39

1 And it came to be when Yaru'shalam was taken, in the ninth year of Tsadaqa'Yahu king of Yahudah, in the tenth month, came Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal and all his army against Yaru'shalam and besieged it,

2 In the eleventh year of Tsadaqa'Yahu, in the fourth month, in nine of the month, a divide was made in the city,

3 that all the princes of the king of Babal came in, and sat in the middle gate, Nargal Shar'atsar, Sama'gar Nabu, Shar Sak’ym, Rab Sar’yas, Nargal Shar'atsar, Rab’mag, with all the rest of the princes of the king of Babal.

4 And it came to be that, when Tsadaqa'Yahu the king of Yahudah and all the men of war saw them, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, through the gate between the two walls, and he went out toward the desert.

5 But the army of the Kashad'ym pursued after them, and overtook Tsadaqa'Yahu in the plains of Yara’khu: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal to Rabal’tha’ah* in the land of Khamath, and he gave judgment on him.

*See Verse 6 Note Below

6 Then the king of Babal slew the sons of Tsadaqa'Yahu in Rabalah* before his eyes: also the king of Babal slew all the nobles of Yahudah.

*Note The Masoretic differences of this town, compare to verse 5 above

7 Moreover he put out Tsadaqa'Yahu's eyes, and bound him in fetters, to carry him in Babal.

8 And the Kashad'ym burned the king's house, and the houses of the people with fire, and broke down the walls of Yaru'shalam.

9 Then Nabuzar Adan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babal the remnant of the people who remained in the city, the deserters also who fell away to him, and the remnant of the people who remained.

10 But Nabuzar Adan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, who had nothing, in the land of Yahudah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

11 Now Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal commanded Nabuzar Adan the captain of the guard concerning Yaram'Yahu saying,

12 Take him and look well to him, and do him no harm, but do to him even as he shall tell you.

13 So Nabuzar Adan the captain of the guard sent, and Nabu’shaza’ban, Rab Sar’yas, and Nargal Shar'atsar, Rab’mag, and all the chief officers of the king of Babal,

14 They sent and took Yaram'Yahu out of the court of the guard, and committed him to Gadal'Yahu son of Akh’yaqam, son of Shapan, that he should carry him home: so he abided among the people.

15 Now the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came to Yaram'Yahu, while he was shut up in the court of the guard saying,

16 Walk and speak to Abada Malak the Kush'ya saying, thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: Behold, I will bring My words on this city for evil, and not for good, and they shall be accomplished before you in that day.

17 But I will rescue you in that day, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.

18 For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but your being shall be for a prey to you, because you have put your trust in Me, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

CHAPTER 40

1  The word that came to Yaram'Yahu from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), after that Nabu'zaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from the Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all the captives of Yaru'shalam and Yahudah, who were carried away captive to Babal.

2 And the captain of the guard took Yaram'Yahu and said to him, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Your ALUAH pronounced this evil on this place,

3 and 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has brought it, and done according as He spoke: because you have transgressed against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and have not obeyed His voice, therefore this, the word, has come on you.

4 Now behold, I release you this day from the chains which are on your hand. If it is good in your eyes to come with me into Babal come, and I will take care of you, but if it seems bad to you to come with me into Babal do not: Behold, all the land is to your face, where it seems good and right to you to go, there go.

5 Now while he was not yet gone back, Go back then to Gadal'Yahu son of Akh'yaqam, son of Shapan, whom the king of Babal has made governor over the cities of Yahudah, and abide with him among the people, or go wherever it seems right to you to go. So the captain of the guard gave him food and a gift, and let him go.

6 Then went Yaram'Yahu to Gadal'Yahu son of Akh'yaqam to Ma'tsapa'thah, and abided with him among the people who were left in the land.

7 Now when all the captains of the forces who were in the fields, even they and their men, heard that the king of Babal had made Gadal'Yahu son of Akh'yaqam governor in the land, and had committed to him men, and women, and children, and of the poorest of the land, of those who were not carried away captive to Babal,

8 then they came to Gadal'Yahu to Ma'tsapa'thah, Ya'shama'AL son of Nathan'Yahu, and Yahu'khanan and Yahu'nathan sons of Qarakh, and Shara’Yah son of Tha’nakham'tha, and sons of Ayapa'ya the Natap’tha’ya, and Ya'azan'Yahu son of the Makath’ya, they and their men.

9 And Gadal'Yahu son of Akh'yaqam son of Shapan swore to them and to their men saying: Do not be afraid to serve the Kashad'ym, abide in the land, and serve the king of Babal and it shall be well with you.

10 As for me, behold, I will abide in Ma'tsapa'thah, to stand before the Kashad'ym who shall come to us: but you, gather wine and summer fruits and oil, and put them in your vessels, and abide in your cities that you have taken.

11 Also when all the Yahud'ym who were in Mu'ab, and among the children of Amun, and in Adum, and who were in all the lands, heard that the king of Babal had left a remnant of Yahudah, and that he had put over them Gadal'Yahu son of Akh'yaqam, son of Shapan,

12 then all the Yahud'ym returned out of all places where they were driven, and came to the land of Yahudah, to Gadal'Yahu, to Ma'tsapa'thah, and gathered wine and summer fruits very much.

13 Moreover Yahu'khanan son of Qarakh, and all the captains of the forces who were in the fields, came to Gadal'Yahu to Ma'tsapa'thah,

14 and said to him, do you know that Ba’al’yas king of the children of Amun has sent Ya'shama'AL son of Nathan'Yahu to strike your being? But Gadal'Yahu son of Akh'yaqam did not trust them.

15 Then Yahu'khanan son of Qarakh spoke to Gadal'Yahu in Ma'tsapah* secretly saying: Please let me go, and I will kill Ya'shama'AL son of Nathan'Yahu, and no man shall know it: why should he take your being, that all the Yahud'ym who are gathered to you should be scattered, and the remnant of Yahudah perish?

*Note The Masoretic difference here than verses 8 and 10 above

16 But Gadal'Yahu son of Akh'yaqam said to Yahu'khanan son of Qarakh, you shall not do this, the word, for you speak falsely of Ya'shama'AL.

CHAPTER 41

1 And it came to be in the seventh month, that Ya'shama'AL son of Nathan'Yahu, son of AL'ya'shama, of the seed royal and the chief officers of the king, and ten men with him, came to Gadal'Yahu son of Akh'yaqam to Ma'tsapa'thah,* and there they ate bread together in Ma'tsapah.*

*Note both differences within the same verse in the Masoretic

2 Then arose Ya'shama'AL son of Nathan'Yahu, and the ten men who were with him, and struck Gadal'Yahu son of Akh'yaqam son of Shapan with the sword, and killed him, whom the king of Babal had made governor over the land.

3 And Ya'shama'AL killed all the Yahud'ym who were with him, with Gadal'Yahu in Ma'tsapah, and the Kashad'ym who were found there, the men of war.

4 And it came to be in the second day after he had killed Gadal'Yahu, and no man knew it,

5 that there came men from Shakam, from Shalu, and from Shamar’un (Shamar’oon), even eighty men, having their beards shaved and their clothes torn, and having cut themselves, with meal offerings and frankincense in their hand, to bring them to the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

6 And Ya'shama'AL son of Nathan'Yahu went forth from Ma'tsapa'thah to meet them, weeping all along as he went: And it came to be as he met them, he said to them: Come to Gadal'Yahu son of Akh'yaqam.

7 And it was so, when they came into the midst of the city, that Ya'shama'AL son of Nathan'Yahu killed them, into the midst of the pit, he and the men who were with him.

8 But ten men were found among those who said to Ya'shama'AL, do not kill us, for we have treasures hidden in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey. So he stopped, and did not kill them among their brothers.

9 Now the pit in which Ya'shama'AL cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had killed, by the side of Gadal'Yahu, the same was who which Asa the king had made for fear of Ba’sha king of Yashar'AL, Ya'shama'AL son of Nathan'Yahu filled it with those who were killed.

10 Then Ya'shama'AL carried away captive all the remnant of the people who were in Ma'tsapah, even the king's daughters, and all the people who remained in Ma'tsapa'thah, whom Nabu'zaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gadal'Yahu son of Akh'yaqam, Ya'shama'AL son of Nathan'Yahu carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the children of Amun.

11 But when Yahu'khanan son of Qarakh, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, heard of all the evil that Ya'shama'AL son of Nathan'Yahu had done,

12 then they took all the men, and went to fight with Ya'shama'AL son of Nathan'Yahu, and found him by the great waters that are in Gaba'un (Gaba’oon).

13 And it came to be that, when all the people who were with Ya'shama'AL saw Yahu'khanan son of Qarakh, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, then they were glad.

14 So all the people who Ya'shama'AL had carried away captive from the Ma'tsapah turned about and came back, and went to Yahu'khanan son of Qarakh.

15 But Ya'shama'AL son of Nathan'Yahu escaped from Yahu'khanan with eight men, and went to the children of Amun.

16 Then took Yahu'khanan son of Qarakh, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ya'shama'AL son of Nathan'Yahu from Ma'tsapah, after that he had killed Gadal'Yahu son of Akh'yaqam,  the men of war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gaba'un:

17 and they departed and abided in Gar’uth (Gar’ooth) Kamu’ahm, which is by Bayath Lakham, to go to enter into Ma'tsara'ym,

18 because of the Kashad'ym, for they were afraid of them, because Ya'shama'AL son of Nathan'Yahu had killed Gadal'Yahu son of Akh'yaqam, whom the king of Babal made governor over the land.

CHAPTER 42

1 Then all the captains of the forces, and Yahu'khanan son of Qarakh, and Ya'azan'Yahu son of Husha'Yah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest came near,

2 and said to Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet): Please let our petition be acceptable to your face, and pray for us to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Your ALUAH, even for all this remnant, for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes do see us:

3 that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Your ALUAH may show us the way in which we should walk, and the word that we should do.

4 Then Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet) said to them, I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Your ALUAH according to your words, and it shall be that whatever the word 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) shall answer you, I will declare it to you, I will keep nothing back from you.

5 Then they said to Yaram'Yahu, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) be a true and trustworthy witness among us, if we do not do according to all the word with which 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Your ALUAH shall send you to us.

6 Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH, to whom we send you, that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH.

7 And it came to be after ten days, that the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) came to Yaram'Yahu.

8 Then called he Yahu'khanan son of Qarakh, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,

9 and said to them, thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL, to whom you sent me to cast down your supplication to His face:

10 If you will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up, for I relent over the distress that I have brought on you.

11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babal of whom you are afraid, do not be afraid of him, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): For I am with you to save you, and to rescue you from his hand.

12 And I will grant you compassion, that he may have compassion on you, and cause you to return to your own land.

13 But if you say, we will not abide in this land, so that you do not obey the voice of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Your ALUAH,

14 saying no, but we will go into the land of Ma'tsara'ym, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the ram’s horn, nor have hunger of bread, and there will we abide:

15 now therefore hear the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), O remnant of Yahudah: Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL, if you put, appoint your faces to enter into Ma'tsara'ym and go to abide there,

16 then it shall be that the sword that you fear, shall overtake you there in the land of Ma'tsara'ym, and the famine, about which you are afraid, shall follow close behind you there in Ma'tsara'ym, and there you shall die.

17 So shall it be with all the men who put their faces to go into Ma'tsara'ym to abide there: they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring on them.

18 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: As My anger and My wrath has been poured forth on the inhabitants of Yaru'shalam, so shall My wrath be poured forth on you, when you shall enter into Ma'tsara'ym, and you shall be an object of horror, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach, and you shall see this place no more.

19 Word 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has spoken concerning remnants of Yahudah, you do not go into Ma'tsara'ym: know certainly that I have testified to you this day.

20 For you have dealt deceitfully against your own beings, for you sent me to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Your ALUAH saying, pray for us to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH, and according to all that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH shall say, so declare to us, and we will do it:

21 and I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Your ALUAH and to all that He has sent me to you.

22 Now therefore know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place where you desire to go to abide there.

CHAPTER 43

1 And it came to be that, when Yaram'Yahu had made an end of speaking to all the people all the words of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Their ALUAH, with which 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Their ALUAH had sent him to them, even all these words,

2 then spoke Azar’Yah son of Husha'Yah, and Yahu'khanan son of Qarakh, and all the proud men saying to Yaram'Yahu, you speak falsely: 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH has not sent you to say, you shall not go into Ma'tsara'ym to abide there,

3 But Baruk son of Nara'Yah has enticed you against us, to give us into the hand of the Kashad'ym, that they may put us to death, and carry us away captive to Babal,

4 So Yahu'khanan son of Qarakh, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, did not obey the voice of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), to abide in the land of Yahudah.

5 But Yahu'khanan son of Qarakh, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Yahudah, who were returned from all the nations where they had been driven, to abide in the land of Yahudah,

6 the men, and the women, and the children, and the king's daughters, and every person who Nabu'zaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gadal'Yahu son of Akh'yaqam, son of Shapan, and Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet), and Baruk son of Nara'Yah,

7 and they came into the land of Ma'tsara'ym, for they did not obey the voice of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): and they came to Thak'pana'khas.

8 Then came the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) to Yaram'Yahu in Thak'pana'khas saying,

9 Take great stones in your hand and hide them in mortar in the brick work, which is at the entry of Para'ah's house in Thak'pana'khas, in the sight of the men of Yahudah,

10 and tell them, thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: Behold, I will send and take Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal My servant, and will put his throne on these stones that I have hidden, and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them.

11 And he shall come, and shall strike the land of Ma'tsara'ym, such as are for death to death, and such as are for captivity to captivity, and such as are for the sword to the sword.

12 And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the idols of Ma'tsara'ym, and he shall burn them and carry them away captive: and he shall array himself with the land of Ma'tsara'ym, as a shepherd puts on his garment, and he shall go forth from there in peace.

13 And he shall break the columns of Bayath Shamash, that is in the land of Ma'tsara'ym, and the houses of the idols of Ma'tsara'ym shall he burn with fire.

CHAPTER 44

1 The word that came to Yaram'Yahu concerning all the Yahud'ym who abided in the land of Ma'tsara'ym, who abided in Magadal, and in Thak'pana'khas, and in Nap (Nahp), and in the land of Pathar'us (Pathar'oos) saying,

2 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: You have seen all the evil that I have brought on Yaru'shalam, and on all the cities of Yahudah, and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man abides therein,

3 because of their wickedness that they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, to serve other idols that they did not know, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers.

4 However I sent to you all my servants the nab’ya’ym (prophets), rising up early and sending them saying, please, do not do this abominable matter that I hate.

5 But they did not listen, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other idols.

6 Therefore My wrath and My anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Yahudah and in the streets of Yaru'shalam, and they are wasted and desolate, as it is this day.

7 Therefore now thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), The ALUAH OF hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: Why do you commit great evil against your own beings, to cut off from yourselves man and woman, infant and nursing child out of the midst of Yahudah, to leave yourselves none remaining,

8 In that you provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands, burning incense to other idols in the land of Ma'tsara'ym, where you have gone to abide, that you may be cut off, and that you may be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?

9 Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Yahudah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives which they committed in the land of Yahudah, and in the streets of Yaru'shalam?

10 They are not humbled even to this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in My Thur’ath, nor in My statutes that I put before you and before your fathers.

11 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, the ALUAH of Yashar'AL: Behold, I will put my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Yahudah.

12 And I will take the remnant of Yahudah that have put their faces to go into the land of Ma'tsara'ym to abide there, and they shall all be consumed, in the land of Ma'tsara'ym shall they fall, they shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, they shall die, from the least even to the greatest, by the sword and by the famine, and they shall be an object of horror, an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.

13 For I will punish those who abide in the land of Ma'tsara'ym, as I have punished Yaru'shalam, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence,

14 so that none of the remnant of Yahudah, who have gone into the land of Ma'tsara'ym to abide there, shall escape or be left, to return into the land of Yahudah, to which they have a desire to return to abide there: for none shall return save such as shall escape.

15 Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense to other idols, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, even all the people who abided in the land of Ma'tsara'ym in Pathar'us (Pathar'oos), answered Yaram'Yahu saying,

16 As for the word that you have spoken to us in The Name OF 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), we will not listen to you.

17 But we will certainly perform every word that is gone forth out of our mouth, to burn incense to the sovereigness of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Yahudah, and in the streets of Yaru'shalam, for then had we plenty of food, and were well and saw no evil.

18 But since we left off burning incense to the sovereigness of the sky, and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.

19 When we burned incense to the sovereigness of the sky, and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her, without our husbands?

20 Then Yaram'Yahu said to all the people, to the men, and to the women, even to all the people who had given him an answer saying,

21 The incense that you burned in the cities of Yahudah, and in the streets of Yaru'shalam, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) remember them, and did it not come into His heart?

22 so that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which you have committed, therefore your land has become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse without inhabitant, as it is this day.

23 Because you have burned incense, and because you have transgressed against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and have not obeyed the voice of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), nor walked in His Thur’ath, nor in His statutes, nor in His witnesses, therefore this evil has happened to you, as it is this day.

24 Moreover Yaram'Yahu said to all the people, and to all the women, hear the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), all Yahudah who are in the land of Ma'tsara'ym:

25 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, the ALUAH of Yashar'AL saying, you and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and with your hands have fulfilled it saying, we will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the sovereigness of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to her: establish then your vows, and perform your vows.

26 Therefore hear the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), all Yahudah who abide in the land of Ma'tsara'ym: Behold, I have sworn by My Great Name, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that My Name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Yahudah in all the land of Ma'tsara'ym saying, as the Sovereign 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Abides.

27 Behold, I watch over them for evil, and not for good, and all the men of Yahudah who are in the land of Ma'tsara'ym shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them.

28 Those who escape the sword shall return out of the land of Ma'tsara'ym into the land of Yahudah, few in number, and all the remnant of Yahudah, who have gone into the land of Ma'tsara'ym to abide there, shall know whose word shall stand: Mine or theirs.

29 And this shall be the sign to you, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that My Words shall surely stand against you for evil:

30 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, I will give Para'ah Kha’par’a king of Ma'tsara'ym into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of those who seek his being, as I gave Tsadaqa'Yahu king of Yahudah into the hand of Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal who was his enemy and sought his being.

CHAPTER 45

1 The word that Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet) spoke to Baruk son of Nara'Yah, when he wrote these words in a Book at the mouth of Yaram'Yahu, in the fourth year of Yahu'yaq'yam son of Ya'asha'Yahu, king of Yahudah saying,

2 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL, to you, Baruk:

3 You said, woe is me now! For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has added sorrow to my pain, I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.

4 You shall tell him, thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up, and all that is the land.

5 And do you seek greats for yourself? Do not seek them, for behold, I will bring evil on all flesh, declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), but your being will I give to you for a prey in all places where you go.

CHAPTER 46

1 The word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) that came to Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet) concerning the nations.

2 Of Ma'tsara'ym: concerning the army of Para'ah Naku king of Ma'tsara'ym, which was by the river Parath in Kar'kamash, which Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal struck in the fourth year of Yahu'yaq'yam son of Ya'asha'Yahu, king of Yahudah.

3 Prepare the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle!

4 Harness the horses, and mount up, you horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets, furbish the spears, put on the coats of armor!

5 Why have I seen it? They are dismayed and are turned backward, and their mighty ones are beaten down, and have fled escape, and do not look back: Terror is on every side, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

6 Do not let the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape, in the north by the river Parath have they stumbled and fallen.

7 Who is this who rises up like the River, whose waters toss themselves like the rivers?

8 Ma'tsara'ym rises up like the River, and his waters toss themselves like the rivers: and he says, I will rise up, I will cover the earth, I will destroy cities and its inhabitants.

9 Go up, O horses and rage, O chariots, and let the mighty men go forth: Kush and Put, who handle the shield, and the Lud’ym, who handle and bend the bow.

10 For that day is of the Sovereign, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, a day of vengeance, that He may avenge Him of His adversaries: and the sword shall devour and be satiate, and shall drink its fill of their blood, for the Sovereign, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, has a slaughtering in the north land by the River Parath.

11 Go up into Gal'ad and take balm, O virgin daughter of Ma'tsara'ym: In vain do you use many medicines, there is no healing for you.

12 Nations have heard of your shame, and the earth is full of your cry, for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, they are fallen both of them together.

13 The word that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) spoke to Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet), how that Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal should come and strike the land of Ma'tsara'ym.

14 Declare in Ma'tsara'ym and publish in Magadal, and publish in Nap (Nahp) and in Thak'pana'khas: say stand forth and prepare, for the sword has devoured around you.

15 Why are your strong ones swept away? They did not stand because 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) did drive them.

16 He made many to stumble, indeed they fell one on another: and they said arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our birth, from the oppressing sword.

17 They cried there, Para'ah king of Ma'tsara'ym is but a noise, he has let the appointed time pass by.

18 As I Abide, says the Sovereign, whose name is 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, surely like Thabur among the mountains, and like Karmal by the sea, so shall he come.

19 O daughter who abides in Ma'tsara'ym, furnish yourself to go into captivity, for Nap (Nahp) shall become a desolation, and shall be burnt up without inhabitant.

20 Ma'tsara'ym is a very beautiful heifer, destruction out of the north is come, it is come.

21 Also her hired men in the midst of her are like calves of the stall, for they also are turned back, they are fled away together, they did not stand: For the day of their calamity is come on them, the time of their visitation.

22 The sound of it shall go like the serpent, for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, like woodcutters.

23 They shall cut down her forest, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), though it cannot be searched, because they are more than the locusts and are innumerable.

24 The daughter of Ma'tsara'ym shall be ashamed, she shall be given into the hand of the people of the north.

25 Says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) OF Hosts, The ALUAH OF Yashar'AL: Behold, I will punish Amun from Na (Nau), and Para'ah, and Ma'tsara'ym, with her idols, and her kings, even Para'ah, and those who trust in him:

26 and I will give them into the hand of those who seek their beings, and into the hand of Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal and into the hand of his servants, and afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

27 And you, do not fear, O Ya'aqab My servant, neither be dismayed, O Yashar'AL: For behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity, and Ya'aqab shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.

28 Do not fear, O Ya'aqab My servant, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), for I am with you: For I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you, but I will not make a full end of you, but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished.

CHAPTER 47

1 The word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) that came to Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet) concerning the Palash'tha'ym, before that Para'ah struck Azah.

2 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall become an overflowing stream, and shall overflow the land and all that is therein, the city and those who abide therein, and the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.

3 At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong ones, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers do not look back to their children for feebleness of hands,

4 Because of the day that comes to destroy all the Palash'tha'ym, to cut off to Tsar and to Tsa’yadun (Tsa’ya’doon) every helper who remains: For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) will destroy the Palash'tha'ym, the remnant of the isle of Kapa’thur.

5 Baldness is come on Azah, Ash’qalun (Ash’qa’loon) is brought to nothing, the remnant of their valley: how long will you cut yourself?

6 O sword of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), how long will it be before you be quiet? Put up yourself into your scabbard, rest, and be still.

7 How can you be quiet, since 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has given you a command? Against Ash’qalun, and against the seashore, there has He appointed it.

CHAPTER 48

1 Of Mu'ab. Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, the ALUAH of Yashar'AL: Woe to Nabu! for it is laid waste, Qara’yath’ym is disappointed, it is taken, the high stronghold is put to shame and broken down.

2 The praise of Mu'ab is no more, in Khash'bun (Khash'boon) they have devised evil against her: Come, and let us cut her off from being a nation. You also, madmen, shall be brought to silence: the sword shall pursue you.

3 The sound of a cry from Kharun'ym (Kha'roon'ym), desolation and great destruction!

4 Mu'ab is destroyed, her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.

5 For by the ascent of Lukh’yath with continual weeping shall they go up, for at the descent of Kharun'ym (Kha'roon'ym) they have heard the distress of the cry of destruction.

6 Flee, save your beings, and be like the bush in the wilderness.

7 For because you have trusted in your works and in your treasures, you also shall be taken: and Kamush (Kamoosh) shall go forth into captivity, his priests and his princes together.

8 The destroyer shall come on every city, and no city shall escape, the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has spoken.

9 Give wings to Mu'ab, that she may fly and get her away: and her cities shall become a desolation, without any to abide therein.

10 Cursed is he who does the work of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) negligently, and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood.

11 Mu'ab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither has he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed.

12 Therefore behold, the days come, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that I will send to him those who pour off, and they shall pour him off, and they shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles in pieces.

13 Mu'ab shall be ashamed of Kamush (Kamoosh), as the house of Yashar'AL was ashamed of Bayath AL their confidence.

14 How do you say, we are mighty men, and valiant men for the war?

15 Mu'ab is laid waste, and they are gone up into his cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter, says the Sovereign, Whose Name IS 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts.

16 The calamity of Mu'ab is near to come, and his affliction hurries fast.

17 All you who are around him, lament him, and all you who know his name, say: How is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod!

18 O daughter who abides in Daya'bun (Daya'boon), come down from your esteem, and sit in thirst, for the destroyer of Mu'ab has come up against you, he has destroyed your strongholds.

19 O inhabitant of Aru’ar, stand by the way and watch: Ask him who flees, and her who escapes, say: What has been done?

20 Mu'ab is ashamed, for it is broken down: Wail and cry, tell it in Ar’nun (Ar’noon) that Mu'ab is laid waste.

21 Judgment is come on the plain land, on Khalun (Kha’loon), and on Yah’tsah, and on Maya’pa’tha,

22 and on Daya'bun (Daya'boon), and on Nabu, and on Bayath Dabal’tha’ym,

23 and on Qara’yath’ym, and on Bayath Gamul, and on Bayath Ma’un,

24 and on Qar'yuth (Qar'yooth), and on Ba'tsarah, and on all the cities of the land of Mu'ab, far or near.

25 The horn of Mu'ab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

26 Make him drunken, for he exalted himself against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): And Mu'ab shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in mockery.

27 For was not Yashar'AL a mockery to you? Was he found among thieves? For as often as you speak of him, you shake your head.

28 O inhabitants of Mu'ab, leave the cities and abide in the rock, and be like the dove that makes her nest over the mouth of the cave.

29 We have heard of the pride of Mu'ab, he is very proud, his loftiness, and his pride, and his arrogance, and the haughtiness of his heart.

30 I know his wrath, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that it is not right, his boastings performed are not true.

31 Therefore will I wail for Mu'ab, and I will cry out for all Mu'ab: for the men of Qayar Kharash shall they mourn.

32 With more than the weeping of Ya'azar will I weep for you, vine of Shabamah: your branches passed over the sea, they reached even to the sea of Ya'azar: on your summer fruits and on your vintage the destroyer is fallen.

33 Gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field and from the land of Mu'ab, and I have caused wine to cease from the wine presses: None shall tread with shouting, the shouting shall be no shouting.

34 From the cry of Khash'bun (Khash'boon) even to AL’alah, even to Yah’tsa have they uttered their voice, from Tsa'ar even to Kharun'ym (Kha'roon'ym), like a three year old heifer: for the waters of Namara’ym also shall become desolate.

35 Moreover I will cause to cease in Mu'ab, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), him who offers in the high place, and him who burns incense to his idols.

36 Therefore My heart sounds for Mu'ab like flutes, and my heart sounds like flutes for the men of Qayar Kharash: therefore the abundance that he has gotten is perished.

37 For every head is bald, and every beard clipped: on all the hands are cuttings, and on the loins sackcloth.

38 On all the housetops of Mu'ab and in its streets there is lamentation every where, for I have broken Mu'ab like a vessel in which none delights, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

39 How is it broken down! They will wail! How has Mu'ab turned the back with shame! So shall Mu'ab become a mockery and a terror to all who are around him.

40 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread out his wings against Mu'ab.

41 Qar'yuth (Qar'yooth) is taken, and the strongholds are seized, and the heart of the mighty men of Mu'ab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

42 And Mu'ab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he has exalted himself against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

43 Fear, and the pit, and the snare are on you, O inhabitant of Mu'ab, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

44 He who flees from the fear shall fall into the pit, and he who gets up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring on him, even on Mu'ab, the year of their visitation, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

45 Those who fled stand without strength under the shadow of Khash'bun (Khash'boon), for a fire is gone forth out of Khash'bun (Khash'boon), and a flame from the midst of Saya’khun (Saya’khoon), and has devoured the corner of Mu'ab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones.

46 Woe to you, O Mu'ab! The people of Kamush (Kamoosh) perish, for your sons are taken away captive, and your daughters into captivity.

47 Yet will I bring back the captivity of Mu'ab in the latter days, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH). Thus far is the judgment of Mu'ab.

CHAPTER 49

1 Of the children of Amun. Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Has Yashar'AL no sons? Has he no heir? Why then does malkam possess Gad, and his people well in its cities?

2 Therefore behold, the days come, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard against Rabath* of the children of Amun, and it shall become a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Yashar'AL possess those who did possess him, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

*See Note On Verse 3 Below

3 Wail, O Khash'bun (Khash'boon), for Aya is laid waste, cry, O daughters of Rabah,* clothe yourself in sackcloth: lament, and run back and forth among the fences, for malkam shall go into captivity, his ka’ahn’ym (priests) and his princes together.

*Note The Masoretic difference from verse 2 above

4 Why do you boast in the valleys, your flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? Who trusted in her treasures, who shall come against me?

5 Behold, I will bring a fear on you, says the Sovereign, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, from all who are around you, and you shall be driven out every man right forth, and there shall be none to gather together the fugitives.

6 But afterward I will bring back the captivity of the children of Amun, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

7 Of Adum. Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts: Is discernment no more in Tha'yaman? Is counsel perished from the prudent? Is their discernment vanished?

8 Flee, turn back, abide in the depths, O inhabitants of Dadan, for I will bring the calamity of Ashu on him, the time that I shall visit him.

9 If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? If thieves by night, would they not destroy until they had enough?

10 But I have made Ashu bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is destroyed, and his brothers, and his neighbors, and he is no more.

11 Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive, and let your widows trust in Me.

12 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, they to whom it did not pertain to drink of the cup shall certainly drink, and are you he who shall altogether go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink.

13 For I have sworn by myself, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that Ba'tsarah shall become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse, and all its cities shall be perpetual wastes.

14 I have heard news from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and an ambassador is sent among the nations: Gather yourselves together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle.

15 For behold, I have made you small among the nations and despised among men.

16 As for your terror, the pride of your heart has deceived you, O you who abide in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill: though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there, declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

17 And Adum shall become an astonishment: everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all its plagues.

18 As in the overthrow of Sadam and Amarah and the neighbor cities of it, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), no man shall abide there, neither shall any son of man abide therein.

19 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Yardan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it, and whoever is chosen, him will I appoint over it: For who is like Me? and who will appoint Me a time? And who is the shepherd who will stand before Me?

20 Therefore hear the counsel of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that He has taken against Adum, and His purposes, that He has purposed against the inhabitants of Tha'yaman: Surely they shall drag them away, the little ones of the flock, surely He shall make their habitation desolate over them.

21 The earth trembles at the noise of their fall, there is a cry, the noise which is heard in the sea of reeds.

22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread out his wings against Ba'tsarah: and the heart of the mighty men of Adum at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

23 Of Damashaq. Khamath is confounded, and Arpad, for they have heard evil news, they are melted away: there is sorrow on the sea, it cannot be silent.

24 Damashaq has grown feeble, she turns herself to flee, and trembling has seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her, as of a woman in travail.

25 How is the city of praise not forsaken, the city of My joy?

26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts.

27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damashaq, and it shall devour the palaces of Ban Hadad.

28 Of Qadar, and of the reigns of Kha'tsur, which Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal struck. Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Arise, go up to Qadar, and destroy the children of the east.

29 Their tents and their flocks shall they take, they shall carry away for themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels, and they shall cry to them: Terror on every side!

30 Flee, wander far off, abide in the depths, O inhabitants of Kha'tsur, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), for Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal has taken counsel against you, and has conceived a purpose against you.

31 Arise, go up to a nation that is at ease, that abides without care, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that have neither gates nor bars, that abides alone.

32 Their camels shall be a plunder and the multitude of their livestock a spoil: And I will scatter to all winds those who have the corners cut off, and I will bring their calamity from every side of them, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

33 Kha'tsur shall be a abideing place of jackals, a desolation forever: no man shall abide there, neither shall any son of man live therein.

34 The word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) that came to Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet) concerning Ayalam, in the beginning of the reign of Tsadaqa'Yahu king of Yahudah saying,

35 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Ayalam, the chief of their might.

36 And upon Ayalam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of the sky, and will scatter them toward all those winds, and there shall be no nation where the outcasts of Ayalam shall not come.

37 And I will cause Ayalam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before those who seek their being, and I will bring evil on them, even My fierce anger, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them,

38 and I will put my throne in Ayalam, and will destroy from there king and princes, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

39 But it shall be in the latter days, that I will turn back the captivity of Ayalam, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

CHAPTER 50

1 The word that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) spoke concerning Babal concerning the land of the Kashad'ym, by Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet).

2 Declare among the nations and let it be heard, and put up a standard, let it be heard, and do not conceal: Say, Babal is taken, Bal is disappointed, Mardak is dismayed, her images are disappointed, her idols are dismayed.

3 For out of the north there comes up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall abide therein: they are fled, they are gone, both man and beast.

4 In those days, and in that time, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), the children of Yashar'AL shall come, they and the children of Yahudah together, they shall go on their way weeping, and shall seek 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Their ALUAH.

5 They shall inquire concerning Tsa'yun (Tsa'yoon) with their faces turned toward it: Come and join yourselves to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) in an everlasting Bar’yath (covenant) that shall not be forgotten.

6 My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains, they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place.

7 All who found them have devoured them, and their adversaries said, we are not guilty, because they have transgressed against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), the habitation of righteousness, even 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), the expectancy of their fathers.

8 Flee out of the midst of Babal and go forth out of the land of the Kashad'ym, and be as the male goats before the flocks.

9 For behold, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babal a company of great nations from the north land, and they shall put themselves in array against her, from there she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of an expert mighty man, none shall return in vain.

10 And Kashad’ym shall be a prey: all who prey on her shall be satisfied, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

11 Because you are glad, because you rejoice, O you who plunder My inheritance, because you are grown fat like a heifer threshing grain and neigh as strong horses,

12 Your mother shall be utterly ashamed, she who bore you shall be confounded: Behold, she shall be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

13 Because of the wrath of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate: everyone who goes by Babal shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

14 Put yourselves in array against Babal all around, all you who bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she has transgressed against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

15 Shout against her all around: she has submitted herself, her bulwarks are fallen, her walls are thrown down, for it is the vengeance of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): take vengeance on her, as she has done, do to her.

16 Cut off the sower from Babal and him who handles the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn everyone to his people, and they shall flee everyone to his own land.

17 Yashar'AL is a hunted sheep, the lions have driven him away: First, the king of Ashur devoured him, and now at last Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal has broken his bones.

18 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, the ALUAH of Yashar'AL: Behold, I will punish the king of Babal and his land, as I have punished the king of Ashur.

19 And I will bring Yashar'AL again to his pasture, and he shall feed on Karmal and Bashan, and his being shall be satisfied on Mount Apara'ym and in Gal'ad.

20 In those days, and in that time, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), the iniquity of Yashar'AL shall be sought for, and there shall be none, and the transgressions of Yahudah, and they shall not be found: For I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant.

21 Go up against the land of Maratha’ym, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Paqud: kill and utterly destroy after them, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and do according to all that I have commanded you.

22 A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.

23 How is the hammer of the whole earth cut apart and broken! How is Babal become a desolation among the nations!

24 I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, Babal and you were not aware: you are found, and also caught, because you have striven against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

25‪ Open is 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) His armory, and has brought forth the weapons of His wrath, for the Sovereign, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, has a work in the land of the Kashad'ym.

26 Come against her from the utmost border, open her storehouses, cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly, let nothing of her be left.

27 Kill all her bulls, let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them! For their day is come, the time of their visitation.

28 The voice of those who flee and escape out of the land of Babal, to declare in Tsa'yun (Tsa'yoon) the vengeance of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH, the vengeance of His Hayakal.

29 Call together the archers against Babal, all those who bend the bow, encamp against her all around, let none of it escape: Recompense her according to her work, according to all that she has done, do to her, for she has been proud against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), against the Made Apart One of Yashar'AL.

30 Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all her men of war will be brought to silence in that day, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

31 Behold, I am against you, O proud one, says the Sovereign, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, for your day has come, the time that I will visit you.

32 The proud one shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up, and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all who are around him.

33 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts: The children of Yashar'AL and the children of Yahudah are oppressed together, and all who took them captive hold them fast, they refuse to let them go.

34 Their Redeemer is strong, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts is His Name: He will contend, plead their causes, that He may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babal.

35 A sword is on the Kashad'ym, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and on the inhabitants of Babal, and on her princes, and on her discerned men.

36 A sword is on the boasters, and they shall become fools, a sword is on her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed.

37 A sword is on their horses, and on their chariots, and on all the mixed people who are in the midst of her, and they shall become as women: a sword is on her treasures, and they shall be robbed.

38 A drought is on her waters, and they shall be dried up, for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols.

39 Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wolves shall abide there, and the ostriches shall abide therein: and it shall be no more inhabited forever, neither shall it be abided in from generation to generation.

40 As when ALUAH overthrew Sadam and Amarah and the neighbor cities of it, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man abide therein.

41 Behold, a people come from the north, and a great nation and many kings shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

42 They lay hold on bow and spear, they are cruel, and have no compassion, their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, O daughter of Babal.

43 The king of Babal has heard the news of them, and his hands wax feeble: anguish has taken hold of him, pangs as of a woman in travail.

44 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Yardan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it, and whoever is chosen, him will I appoint over it: For who is like Me? and who will appoint Me a time? And who is the shepherd who can stand before Me?

45 Therefore hear the counsel of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that he has taken against Babal, and His purposes, that He has purposed against the land of the Kashad'ym: Surely they shall drag them away, the little ones of the flock, surely He shall make their habitation desolate over them.

46 At the noise of the taking of Babal the earth trembles, and the cry is heard among the nations.

CHAPTER 51

1 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, I will raise up Babal, and against those who abide in Lab Kama’ya, a destroying wind.

2 And I will send to Babal strangers, who shall winnow her, and they shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her around.

3 Against one that bends let the archer bend his bow, and against one that lifts himself up in his coat of armor: and do not spare her young men, utterly destroy all her army.

4 And they shall fall slain in the land of the Kashad'ym, and thrust through in her streets.

5 For Yashar'AL is not forsaken, nor Yahudah, of His ALUAH, of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, though their land is full of guilt against the Made Apart One of Yashar'AL.

6 Flee out of the midst of Babal, and save every man his being, do not be cut off in her iniquity: for it is the time of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)'s vengeance, He will render to her a recompense.

7 Babal has been a golden cup in 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)'s hand, who made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine, therefore the nations are mad.

8 Babal is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her, take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.

9 We would have healed Babal, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own land, for her judgment reaches to shama'ym, and is lifted up even to the skies.

10 ‪Revealed has 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Tsa'yun (Tsa'yoon) the work of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) Our ALUAH.

11 Make sharp the arrows, hold firm the shields: 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has stirred up the rukh of the kings of the Mada'ya, because His purpose is against Babal to destroy it: For it is the vengeance of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), the vengeance of His Hayakal.

12 Put up a standard against the walls of Babal, make the watch strong, place the watchmen, prepare the ambushes, for 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babal.

13 You who abide on many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your covetousness.

14 ‪Has sworn 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts by Himself: Surely I will fill you with men, as with the locust, and they shall lift up a shout against you.

15 He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His discernment, and by His understanding has He stretched out the shama'ym:

16 when He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the shama'ym, and He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth, He makes lightning for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of His treasuries.

17 Every man is become brutish without knowledge, every goldsmith is disappointed by his image, for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

18 They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

19 The portion of Ya'aqab is not like these, for he is the former of all, and is the tribe of His inheritance: 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts is His Name.

20 You are my battle axe and weapons of war: and with you will I break in pieces the nations, and with you will I destroy reigns,

21 and with you will I break in pieces the horse and his rider,

22 and with you will I break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein, and with you will I break in pieces man and woman, and with you will I break in pieces the old man and the youth, and with you will I break in pieces the young man and the virgin,

23 and with you will I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock, and with you will I break in pieces the farmer and his yoke, and with you will I break in pieces governors and deputies.

24 And I will render to Babal and to all the inhabitants of Kashad'ym all their evil that they have done in Tsa'yun (Tsa'yoon) in your sight, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

25 Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), which destroys all the earth, and I will stretch out my hand on you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain.

26 They shall not take of you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations, but you shall be desolate for ever, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

27 Put up a standard in the land, blow the ram’s horn among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the reigns of Ararat, Mana’ya, and Ash’kanaz: appoint a commander against her, cause the horses to come up as the rough canker worm.

28 Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Mada'ya, its governors, and all its deputies, and all the land of their rule.

29 And the land trembles and is in pain, for the purposes of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) against Babal do stand, to make the land of Babal a desolation, without inhabitant.

30 The mighty men of Babal have forborne to fight, they remain in their strongholds, their might has failed, they are become as women: her abiding places are put on fire, her bars are broken.

31 One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babal that his city is taken on every quarter:

32 and the passages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are frightened.

33 For thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts, the ALUAH of Yashar'AL: The daughter of Babal is like a threshingfloor at the time when it is trodden, yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her.

34 Nabu'khad'natsar the king of Babal has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has, like a monster, swallowed me up, he has filled his maw with my delicacies, he has cast me out.

35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babal, shall the inhabitant of Tsa’yun (Tsa’yoon) say, and my blood be on the inhabitants of Kashad'ym, shall Yaru'shalam say.

36 Therefore thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH): Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you, and I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.

37 Babal shall become heaps, an abiding place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.

38 They shall roar together like young lions, they shall growl as lions' cubs.

39 When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.

41 How is Shashak taken! and the praise of the whole earth seized! How is Babal become a desolation among the nations!

42 The sea is come up on Babal, she is covered with the multitude of its waves.

43 Her cities are become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land in which no man abides, neither does any son of man pass thereby.

44 I will execute judgment on Bal in Babal, and I will bring forth of his mouth that which he has swallowed up, and the nations shall not flow any more to him: Even the wall of Babal shall fall.

45 My people, go away from the midst of her, and save yourselves every man from the fierce anger of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

46 Do not let your heart faint, neither fear for the report that shall be heard in the land, for report shall come one year, and after that in another year report, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

47 Therefore behold, the days come, that I will execute judgment on the engraved images of Babal, and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

48 Then the shama'ym and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for joy over Babal, for the destroyers shall come to her from the north, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

49 As Babal has caused the slain of Yashar'AL to fall, so at Babal shall fall the slain of all the land.

50 You who escaped the sword, go: Do not stand still, remember 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) from afar, and let Yaru'shalam come into your mind.

51 We are confounded, because we have heard reproach, confusion has covered our faces: for strangers are come into the Made Apart Places of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)'s House.

52 Therefore behold, the days come, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), that I will execute judgment on her engraved images, and through all her land the wounded shall groan.

53 Though Babal should mount up to the sky, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me shall destroyers come to her, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH).

54 The sound of a cry from Babal, and of great destruction from the land of the Kashad’ym!

55 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) lays Babal waste and destroys out of her the great voice, and their waves roar like many waters, the noise of their voice is uttered:

56 for the destroyer is come on her, even on Babal and her mighty men are taken, their bows are broken in pieces, for 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) is an AL of recompenses, He will surely repay.

57 And I will make drunk her princes and her discerned men, her governors and her deputies, and her mighty men, and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up, says the Sovereign, Whose Name IS 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts.

58 Thus says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) of hosts: The broad walls of Babal shall be utterly overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire, and the peoples shall labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire, and they shall be weary.

59. The word that Yaram'Yahu the nab’ya (prophet) commanded Shara’Yah son of Nara'Yah, son of Makhasa'Yah, when he went with Tsadaqa'Yahu the king of Yahudah to Babal in the fourth year of his reign. Now Shara’Yah was chief quartermaster.

60 Yaram’Yahu wrote in a Book all the evil that should come on Babal, even all these words that are written concerning Babal.

61 And Yaram'Yahu said to Shara’Yah, when you come to Babal, then see that you read all these words,

62 and say, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that none shall abide therein, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate forever.

63 And it shall be, when you have made an end of reading this Book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Parath:

64 and you shall say, thus shall Babal sink, and shall not rise again because of the evil that I will bring on her, and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Yaram'Yahu.

CHAPTER 52

1 Tsadaqa'Yahu was twenty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Yaru'shalam: and his mother's name was Khamutal daughter of Yaram'Yahu from Labanah.

2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), according to all that Yahu'yaq'yam had done.

3 For through the anger of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) did it come to be in Yaru'shalam and Yahudah, until he had cast them out from His face. And Tsadaqa'Yahu rebelled against the king of Babal.

4 And it came to be in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nabu'khad'natsar king of Babal came, he and all his army, against Yaru'shalam, and encamped against it, and they built forts against it round about.

5 So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of king Tsadaqa'Yahu.

6 In the fourth month, in nine of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

7 Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden, now the Kashad'ym were against the city all around, and they went toward the desert.

8 But the army of the Kashad'ym pursued after the king, and overtook Tsadaqa'Yahu in the plains of Yara’khu, and all his army was scattered from him.

9 Then they took the king and carried him up to the king of Babal to Rabal’thah in the land of Khamath, and he gave judgment on him.

10 And the king of Babal slew sons of Tsadaqa'Yahu before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Yahudah in Rabal’thah.

11 And he put out the eyes of Tsadaqa'Yahu, and the king of Babal bound him in fetters and carried him to Babal, and put him in prison until the day of his death.

12 And in the fifth month, in ten of the month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nabu'khad'natsar, king of Babal, came Nabu'zaradan the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of Babal, into Yaru’shalam:

13 and he burned the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and the king's house, and all the houses of Yaru'shalam, even every great house, burned he with fire.

14 And all the army of the Kashad'ym, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Yaru'shalam all around.

15 Then Nabu'zaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the poorest of the people, and the remnant of the people who were left in the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of Babal, and the remnant of the multitude.

16 But Nabu'zaradan the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vineyard keepers and farmers.

17 And the columns of bronze that were in the house of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), and the bases and the bronze sea that were in the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH), did the Kashad'ym break in pieces, and carried all the bronze of them to Babal.

18 The pots also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the basins, and the spoons, and all the vessels of bronze with which they attended, took they away.

19 And the cups, and the fire pans, and the basins, and the pots, and the lampstands, and the spoons, and the bowls—that which was of gold, in gold, and that which was of silver, in silver—the captain of the guard took away.

20 The two columns, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls that were under the bases, which King Shalamah had made for the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH). The bronze of all these vessels was without weight.

21 As for the columns, the height of the one column was eighteen cubits, and a line of twelve cubits did compass it, and its thickness was four fingers: it was hollow.

22 And a capital of bronze was on it, and the height of the one capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital all around, all of bronze: and the second column also had like these, and pomegranates.

23 And there were ninety and six pomegranates on the sides, all the pomegranates were one hundred on the network all around.

24 And the captain of the guard took Shara’Yah the chief ka’ahn (priest), and Tsapana’Yah the second ka’ahn (priest), and the three keepers of the threshold:

25 and out of the city he took an officer who was set over the men of war, and seven men of those who saw the king's face, who were found in the city, and the scribe of the captain of the army, who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city.

26 And Nabu'zaradan, captain of the guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babal to Rabal’thah.

27 And the king of Babal struck them and put them to death at Rabal’thah in the land of Khamath. So Yahudah was carried away captive out of his land.

28 This is the people whom Nabu'khad'natsar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand twenty and three Yahud'ym,

29 In the eighteenth year of Nabu'khad'natsar he carried away captive from Yaru'shalam eight hundred thirty and two beings,

30 In the three and twentieth year of Nabu'khad'natsar, Nabu'zaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Yahud'ym seven hundred forty and five beings: all the beings were four thousand and six hundred.

31 And it came to be in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Yahu'yakan* king of Yahudah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Au'yal (Au'oo'yal) Mardak king of Babal, in the head year of his reign, lifted up the head of Yahu'yak'yan* king of Yahudah, and brought him forth out of prison,

*Note The Masoretic differences here in the same verse for his name

32 and he spoke kindly to him, and put his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babal,

33 and changed his prison garments, and he ate bread before him continually all the days of his khaYah (life):

34 And for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Babal, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his khaYah (life).