Jeremiah 51

1 The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Jews living in the land of Egypt — those settled in Migdol and in Tahpanhes and in the land of Pathros: [a] 2 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: You have seen all the disasters I brought on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah; look, they are deserted, without inhabitants,” 3 “because of the evil they did to provoke me bitterly, going to burn incense to other gods whom you had not known.” 4 “I sent you my servants the prophets day after day, from early morning — I sent them, saying, Do not do this defiling thing that I hate.” 5 “But they did not listen to me and did not turn their ear, so as to turn from their evils and stop burning incense to other gods.” 6 “So my anger and my wrath dripped down and blazed up in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became a desolation and an uninhabited waste, as they are this day.” 7 “And now this is what the Lord Almighty says: Why are you doing such great harm to your own souls — cutting off from among you man and woman, infant and nursing child, from the middle of Judah, so that none of you is left —” 8 “provoking me bitterly with the works of your hands by burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have come to live, so that you are cut off and become a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?” 9 “Have you forgotten the evils of your fathers, the evils of the kings of Judah, the evils of your rulers, and the evils of your wives, which they did in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?” 10 “They have not stopped to this day, and they have not held to my decrees, which I set before their fathers.” [b] 11 “Therefore, this is what the Lord says: Look, I am setting my face” 12 “to destroy all those who remain in Egypt, and they will fall. By the sword and by the famine they will perish, from the least to the greatest, and they will become a reproach and a destruction and a curse.” 13 “I will call those who live in the land of Egypt to account, just as I called Jerusalem to account, with sword and famine and plague,” 14 “and not one of the remaining people of Judah who are living as foreigners in the land of Egypt will be saved to return to the land of Judah, where they set their hearts on returning to live. They will not return — only a few who escape.”

15 Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, and all the women — a great gathering — and all the people living in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah: 16 “The word you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord — we will not listen to you.” 17 “We will certainly do everything we have said with our own mouths: burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, just as we and our fathers and our kings and our rulers did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had our fill of bread, and we were well off, and we saw no harm.” 18 “But ever since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven, we have all been brought low, and we have perished by the sword and by the famine.” 19 “And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her — was it without our husbands that we made cakes for her and poured out drink offerings to her?” [c]

20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people — to the strong men and the women and all the people who had given him this answer: 21 “The incense you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem — you and your fathers and your kings and your rulers and the people of the land — did the Lord not remember it? Did it not come into his heart?” 22 “The Lord could no longer bear the evil of your deeds, the detestable things you did, and your land became a desolation and an uninhabited waste and a curse, as it is this day,” 23 “because you burned incense and sinned against the Lord, and did not listen to the voice of the Lord, and did not walk by his decrees and his law and his witness. That is why these disasters have taken hold of you.” 24 And Jeremiah said to the people and to the women, “Hear the word of the Lord.” 25 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: You women have spoken with your mouths and carried it out with your hands, saying, We will surely perform the vows we have made, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her. You have certainly stood by your vows, and you have certainly carried them out.” 26 “Therefore hear the word of the Lord, all Judah living in the land of Egypt: Look, I have sworn by my great name, says the Lord, that my name will never again be in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, to say, As the Lord God lives.” 27 “For look, I am watching over them for harm and not for good, and all Judah living in the land of Egypt will perish by the sword and by the famine, until they are gone.” 28 “Those who escape the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah few in number, and the remaining people of Judah who settled in the land of Egypt to live there will know whose word stands.” 29 “And this is the sign to you that I will call you to account for harm:” [d] 30 “This is what the Lord says: Look, I am giving Hophra king of Egypt into the hands of his enemy and into the hands of those who seek his life, just as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, who sought his life.”

31 The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch son of Neriah when he was writing these words in the book from the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: [e] 32 “This is what the Lord says about you, Baruch:” 33 “Because you said, ‘Woe is me, woe is me, for the Lord has added trouble to my pain; I have lain down in groaning and found no rest’ —” 34 “say to him, This is what the Lord says: Look, what I built, I am tearing down, and what I planted, I am uprooting.” 35 “And you — are you seeking great things for yourself? Do not seek them, for look, I am bringing disaster on all flesh, says the Lord, but I will give you your life as a prize in every place you go.”