[Ohio-Communities-of-Faith] DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR SATURDAY AUGUST 27

[Donnie Parrett]

DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR SATURDAY AUGUST 27

DAILY BIBLE READING

Jeremiah 49-52 New King James Version
Judgment on Ammon
49 Against the Ammonites.

Thus says the Lord:

"Has Israel no sons?
Has he no heir?
Why then does [a]Milcom inherit Gad,
And his people dwell in its cities?
2 Therefore behold, the days are coming," says the Lord,
"That I will cause to be heard an alarm of war
In Rabbah of the Ammonites;
It shall be a desolate mound,
And her [b]villages shall be burned with fire.
Then Israel shall take possession of his inheritance," says the Lord.

3 "Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is plundered!
Cry, you daughters of Rabbah,
Gird yourselves with sackcloth!
Lament and run to and fro by the walls;
For [c]Milcom shall go into captivity
With his priests and his princes together.
4 Why do you boast in the valleys,
[d]Your flowing valley, O backsliding daughter?
Who trusted in her treasures, saying,
'Who will come against me?'
5 Behold, I will bring fear upon you,"
Says the Lord God of hosts,
"From all those who are around you;
You shall be driven out, everyone headlong,
And no one will gather those who wander off.
6 But afterward I will bring back
The captives of the people of Ammon," says the Lord.

Judgment on Edom
7 Against Edom.

Thus says the Lord of hosts:

"Is wisdom no more in Teman?
Has counsel perished from the prudent?
Has their wisdom vanished?
8 Flee, turn back, dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Dedan!
For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him,
The time that I will punish 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 have enough?
10 But I have made Esau bare;
I have uncovered his secret places,
And he shall not be able to hide himself.
His descendants are plundered,
His brethren 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 the Lord: "Behold, those whose judgment was not to drink of
the cup have assuredly drunk. And are you the one who will altogether go
unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink of it.
13 For I have sworn by Myself," says the Lord, "that Bozrah shall become a
desolation, a reproach, a [e]waste, and a curse. And all its cities shall be
perpetual [f]wastes."

14 I have heard a message from the Lord,
And an ambassador has been sent to the nations:
"Gather together, come against her,
And rise up to battle!

15 "For indeed, I will make you small among nations,
Despised among men.
16 Your fierceness has deceived you,
The pride of your heart,
O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock,
Who hold the height of the hill!
Though you make your nest as high as the eagle,
I will bring you down from there," says the Lord.

17 "Edom also shall be an astonishment;
Everyone who goes by it will be astonished
And will hiss at all its plagues.
18 As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah
And their neighbors," says the Lord,
"No one shall remain there,
Nor shall a son of man dwell in it.

19 "Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the [g]floodplain of the
Jordan
Against the dwelling place of the strong;
But I will suddenly make him run away from her.
And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her?
For who is like Me?
Who will arraign Me?
And who is that shepherd
Who will withstand Me?"

20 Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord that He has taken against Edom,
And His purposes that He has proposed against the inhabitants of Teman:
Surely the least of the flock shall [h]draw them out;
Surely He shall make their dwelling places desolate with them.
21 The earth shakes at the noise of their fall;
At the cry its noise is heard at the Red Sea.
22 Behold, He shall come up and fly like the eagle,
And spread His wings over Bozrah;
The heart of the mighty men of Edom in that day shall be
Like the heart of a woman in birth pangs.

Judgment on Damascus
23 Against Damascus.

"Hamath and Arpad are shamed,
For they have heard bad news.
They are fainthearted;
There is [i]trouble on the sea;
It cannot be quiet.
24 Damascus has grown feeble;
She turns to flee,
And fear has seized her.
Anguish and sorrows have taken her like a woman in [j]labor.
25 Why is the city of praise not deserted, the city of My joy?
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets,
And all the men of war shall be cut off in that day," says the Lord of
hosts.
27 "I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus,
And it shall consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad."

Judgment on Kedar and Hazor
28 Against Kedar and against the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon shall strike.

Thus says the Lord:

"Arise, go up to Kedar,
And devastate the men of the East!
29 Their tents and their flocks they shall take away.
They shall take for themselves their curtains,
All their vessels and their camels;
And they shall cry out to them,
'Fear is on every side!'

30 "Flee, get far away! Dwell in the depths,
O inhabitants of Hazor!" says the Lord.
"For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you,
And has conceived a plan against you.

31 "Arise, go up to the wealthy nation that dwells securely," says the Lord,
"Which has neither gates nor bars,
Dwelling alone.
32 Their camels shall be for booty,
And the multitude of their cattle for plunder.
I will scatter to all winds those [k]in the farthest corners,
And I will bring their calamity from all its sides," says the Lord.
33 "Hazor shall be a dwelling for jackals, a desolation forever;
No one shall reside there,
Nor son of man dwell in it."

Judgment on Elam
34 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam, in
the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, 35 "Thus says
the Lord of hosts:

'Behold, I will break the [l]bow of Elam,
The foremost of their might.
36 Against Elam I will bring the four winds
>From the four quarters of heaven,
And scatter them toward all those winds;
There shall be no nations where the outcasts of Elam will not go.
37 For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies
And before those who seek their life.
I will bring disaster upon them,
My fierce anger,' says the Lord;
'And I will send the sword after them
Until I have consumed them.
38 I will set My throne in Elam,
And will destroy from there the king and the princes,' says the Lord.

39 'But it shall come to pass in the latter days:
I will bring back the captives of Elam,' says the Lord."

Judgment on Babylon and Babylonia
50 The word that the Lord spoke against Babylon and against the land of the
Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.

2 "Declare among the nations,
Proclaim, and [m]set up a standard;
Proclaim-do not conceal it-
Say, 'Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed.
[n]Merodach is broken in pieces;
Her idols are humiliated,
Her images are broken in pieces.'
3 For out of the north a nation comes up against her,
Which shall make her land desolate,
And no one shall dwell therein.
They shall [o]move, they shall depart,
Both man and beast.

4 "In those days and in that time," says the Lord,
"The children of Israel shall come,
They and the children of Judah together;
With continual weeping they shall come,
And seek the Lord their God.
5 They shall ask the way to Zion,
With their faces toward it, saying,
'Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord
In a perpetual covenant
That will not be forgotten.'

6 "My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have led them 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 have not offended,
Because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice,
The Lord, the hope of their fathers.'

8 "Move from the midst of Babylon,
Go out of the land of the Chaldeans;
And be like the [p]rams before the flocks.
9 For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon
An assembly of great nations from the north country,
And they shall array themselves against her;
>From there she shall be captured.
Their arrows shall be like those of [q]an expert warrior;
None shall return in vain.
10 And Chaldea shall become plunder;
All who plunder her shall be satisfied," says the Lord.

11 "Because you were glad, because you rejoiced,
You destroyers of My heritage,
Because you have grown fat like a heifer threshing grain,
And you [r]bellow like bulls,
12 Your mother shall be deeply ashamed;
She who bore you shall be ashamed.
Behold, the least of the nations shall be a wilderness,
A dry land and a desert.
13 Because of the wrath of the Lord
She shall not be inhabited,
But she shall be wholly desolate.
Everyone who goes by Babylon shall be horrified
And hiss at all her plagues.

14 "Put yourselves in array against Babylon all around,
All you who bend the bow;
Shoot at her, spare no arrows,
For she has sinned against the Lord.
15 Shout against her all around;
She has given her hand,
Her foundations have fallen,
Her walls are thrown down;
For it is the vengeance of the Lord.
Take vengeance on her.
As she has done, so do to her.
16 Cut off the sower from Babylon,
And him who handles the sickle at harvest time.
For fear of the oppressing sword
Everyone shall turn to his own people,
And everyone shall flee to his own land.

17 "Israel is like scattered sheep;
The lions have driven him away.
First the king of Assyria devoured him;
Now at last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones."

18 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:

"Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land,
As I have punished the king of Assyria.
19 But I will bring back Israel to his home,
And he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan;
His soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead.
20 In those days and in that time," says the Lord,
"The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none;
And the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found;
For I will pardon those whom I preserve.

21 "Go up against the land of Merathaim, against it,
And against the inhabitants of Pekod.
[s]Waste and utterly destroy them," says the Lord,
"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 the hammer of the whole earth has been cut apart and broken!
How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!
24 I have laid a snare for you;
You have indeed been trapped, O Babylon,
And you were not aware;
You have been found and also caught,
Because you have contended against the Lord.
25 The Lord has opened His armory,
And has brought out the weapons of His indignation;
For this is the work of the Lord God of hosts
In the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come against her from the farthest border;
Open her storehouses;
Cast her up as heaps of ruins,
And destroy her utterly;
Let nothing of her be left.
27 Slay all her bulls,
Let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them!
For their day has come, the time of their punishment.
28 The voice of those who flee and escape from the land of Babylon
Declares in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,
The vengeance of His temple.

29 "Call together the archers against Babylon.
All you who bend the bow, encamp against it all around;
Let none of them [t]escape.
Repay her according to her work;
According to all she has done, do to her;
For she has been proud against the Lord,
Against the Holy One of Israel.
30 Therefore her young men shall fall in the streets,
And all her men of war shall be cut off in that day," says the Lord.
31 "Behold, I am against you,
O most haughty one!" says the Lord God of hosts;
"For your day has come,
[u]The time that I will punish you.
32 The most proud shall stumble and fall,
And no one will raise him up;
I will kindle a fire in his cities,
And it will devour all around him."

33 Thus says the Lord of hosts:

"The children of Israel were oppressed,
Along with the children of Judah;
All who took them captive have held them fast;
They have refused to let them go.
34 Their Redeemer is strong;
The Lord of hosts is His name.
He will thoroughly plead their case,
That He may give rest to the land,
And disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

35 "A sword is against the Chaldeans," says the Lord,
"Against the inhabitants of Babylon,
And against her princes and her wise men.
36 A sword is against the soothsayers, and they will be fools.
A sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.
37 A sword is against their horses,
Against their chariots,
And against all the mixed peoples who are in her midst;
And they will become like women.
A sword is against her treasures, and they will be robbed.
38 A [v]drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up.
For it is the land of carved images,
And they are insane with their idols.

39 "Therefore the wild desert beasts shall dwell there with the jackals,
And the ostriches shall dwell in it.
It shall be inhabited no more forever,
Nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
40 As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
And their neighbors," says the Lord,
"So no one shall reside there,
Nor son of man dwell in it.

41 "Behold, a people shall come from the north,
And a great nation and many kings
Shall be raised up from the ends of the earth.
42 They shall hold the bow and the lance;
They are cruel and shall not show mercy.
Their voice shall roar like the sea;
They shall ride on horses,
Set in array, like a man for the battle,
Against you, O daughter of Babylon.

43 "The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,
And his hands grow feeble;
Anguish has taken hold of him,
Pangs as of a woman in childbirth.

44 "Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the [w]floodplain of the
Jordan
Against the dwelling place of the strong;
But I will make them suddenly run away from her.
And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her?
For who is like Me?
Who will arraign Me?
And who is that shepherd
Who will withstand Me?"

45 Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord that He has taken against Babylon,
And His purposes that He has proposed against the land of the Chaldeans:
Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out;
Surely He will make their dwelling place desolate with them.
46 At the noise of the taking of Babylon
The earth trembles,
And the cry is heard among the nations.

The Utter Destruction of Babylon
51 Thus says the Lord:

"Behold, I will raise up against Babylon,
Against those who dwell in [x]Leb Kamai,
A destroying wind.
2 And I will send winnowers to Babylon,
Who shall winnow her and empty her land.
For in the day of doom
They shall be against her all around.
3 Against her let the archer bend his bow,
And lift himself up against her in his armor.
Do not spare her young men;
Utterly destroy all her army.
4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans,
And those thrust through in her streets.
5 For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah,
By his God, the Lord of hosts,
Though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel."

6 Flee from the midst of Babylon,
And every one save his life!
Do not be cut off in her iniquity,
For this is the time of the Lord's vengeance;
He shall recompense her.
7 Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand,
That made all the earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
Therefore the nations are deranged.
8 Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed.
Wail for her!
Take balm for her pain;
Perhaps she may be healed.

9 We would have healed Babylon,
But she is not healed.
Forsake her, and let us go everyone to his own country;
For her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies.
10 The Lord has revealed our righteousness.
Come and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.

11 Make[y] the arrows bright!
Gather the shields!
The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes.
For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it,
Because it is the vengeance of the Lord,
The vengeance for His temple.
12 Set up the standard on the walls of Babylon;
Make the guard strong,
Set up the watchmen,
Prepare the ambushes.
For the Lord has both devised and done
What He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O you who dwell by many waters,
Abundant in treasures,
Your end has come,
The measure of your covetousness.
14 The Lord of hosts has sworn by Himself:
"Surely I will fill you with men, as with locusts,
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 wisdom,
And stretched out the heaven by His understanding.
16 When He utters His voice-
There is a multitude of waters in the heavens:
"He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;
He makes lightnings for the rain;
He brings the wind out of His treasuries."

17 Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge;
Every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image;
For his molded image is falsehood,
And there is no breath in them.
18 They are futile, a work of errors;
In the time of their punishment they shall perish.
19 The Portion of Jacob is not like them,
For He is the Maker of all things;
And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance.
The Lord of hosts is His name.

20 "You are My battle-ax and weapons of war:
For with you I will break the nation in pieces;
With you I will destroy kingdoms;
21 With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider;
With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider;
22 With you also I will break in pieces man and woman;
With you I will break in pieces old and young;
With you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden;
23 With you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;
With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen;
And with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers.

24 "And I will repay Babylon
And all the inhabitants of Chaldea
For all the evil they have done
In Zion in your sight," says the Lord.

25 "Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,
Who destroys all the earth," says the Lord.
"And I will stretch out My hand against you,
Roll you down from the rocks,
And make you a burnt mountain.
26 They shall not take from you a stone for a corner
Nor a stone for a foundation,
But you shall be desolate forever," says the Lord.

27 Set up a banner in the land,
Blow the trumpet among the nations!
Prepare the nations against her,
Call the kingdoms together against her:
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a general against her;
Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.
28 Prepare against her the nations,
With the kings of the Medes,
Its governors and all its rulers,
All the land of his dominion.
29 And the land will tremble and sorrow;
For every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon,
To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.
30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting,
They have remained in their strongholds;
Their might has failed,
They became like women;
They have burned her dwelling places,
The bars of her gate are broken.
31 One runner will run to meet another,
And one messenger to meet another,
To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on all sides;
32 The passages are blocked,
The reeds they have burned with fire,
And the men of war are terrified.

33 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:

"The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor
When it is time to thresh her;
Yet a little while
And the time of her harvest will come."

34 "Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon
Has devoured me, he has crushed me;
He has made me an empty vessel,
He has swallowed me up like a monster;
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies,
He has spit me out.
35 Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon,"
The inhabitant of Zion will say;
"And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!"
Jerusalem will say.

36 Therefore thus says the Lord:

"Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.
37 Babylon shall become a heap,
A dwelling place for jackals,
An astonishment and a hissing,
Without an inhabitant.
38 They shall roar together like lions,
They shall growl like lions' whelps.
39 In their excitement I will prepare their feasts;
I will make them drunk,
That they may rejoice,
And sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake," says the Lord.
40 "I will bring them down
Like lambs to the slaughter,
Like rams with male goats.

41 "Oh, how Sheshach[z] is taken!
Oh, how the praise of the whole earth is seized!
How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!
42 The sea has come up over Babylon;
She is covered with the multitude of its waves.
43 Her cities are a desolation,
A dry land and a wilderness,
A land where no one dwells,
Through which no son of man passes.
44 I will punish Bel[aa] in Babylon,
And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed;
And the nations shall not stream to him anymore.
Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

45 "My people, go out of the midst of her!
And let everyone deliver [ab]himself from the fierce anger of the Lord.
46 And lest your heart faint,
And you fear for the rumor that will be heard in the land
(A rumor will come one year,
And after that, in another year
A rumor will come,
And violence in the land,
Ruler against ruler),
47 Therefore behold, the days are coming
That I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon;
Her whole land shall be ashamed,
And all her slain shall fall in her midst.
48 Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them
Shall sing joyously over Babylon;
For the plunderers shall come to her from the north," says the Lord.

49 As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall,
So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.
50 You who have escaped the sword,
Get away! Do not stand still!
Remember the Lord afar off,
And let Jerusalem come to your mind.

51 We are ashamed because we have heard reproach.
Shame has covered our faces,
For strangers have come into the [ac]sanctuaries of the Lord's house.

52 "Therefore behold, the days are coming," says the Lord,
"That I will bring judgment on her carved images,
And throughout all her land the wounded shall groan.
53 Though Babylon were to [ad]mount up to heaven,
And though she were to fortify the height of her strength,
Yet from Me plunderers would come to her," says the Lord.

54 The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,
55 Because the Lord is plundering Babylon
And silencing her loud voice,
Though her waves roar like great waters,
And the noise of their voice is uttered,
56 Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon,
And her mighty men are taken.
Every one of their bows is broken;
For the Lord is the God of recompense,
He will surely repay.

57 "And I will make drunk
Her princes and wise men,
Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men.
And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake," says the King,
Whose name is the Lord of hosts.

58 Thus says the Lord of hosts:

"The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken,[ae]
And her high gates shall be burned with fire;
The people will labor in vain,
And the nations, because of the fire;
And they shall be weary."

Jeremiah's Command to Seraiah
59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah,
the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon
in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was the quartermaster. 60 So
Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon, all
these words that are written against Babylon. 61 And Jeremiah said to
Seraiah, "When you arrive in Babylon and see it, and read all these words,
62 then you shall say, 'O Lord, You have spoken against this place to cut it
off, so that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be
desolate forever.' 63 Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this
book, that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates.
64 Then you shall say, 'Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the
catastrophe that I will bring upon her. And they shall be weary.' "

Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

The Fall of Jerusalem Reviewed
52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned
eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of
Jeremiah of Libnah. 2 He also did evil in the sight of the Lord, according
to all that Jehoiakim had done. 3 For because of the anger of the Lord this
happened in Jerusalem and Judah, till He finally cast them out from His
presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

4 Now it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on
the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his
army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege
wall against it all around. 5 So the city was besieged until the eleventh
year of King Zedekiah. 6 By the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month,
the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the
people of the land. 7 Then the city wall was broken through, and all the men
of war fled and went out of the city at night by way of the gate between the
two walls, which was by the king's garden, even though the Chaldeans were
near the city all around. And they went by way of the [af]plain.

8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook Zedekiah
in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him. 9 So they
took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the
land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgment on him. 10 Then the king of
Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. And he killed all the
princes of Judah in Riblah. 11 He also put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the
king of Babylon bound him in [ag]bronze fetters, took him to Babylon, and
put him in prison till the day of his death.

The Temple and City Plundered and Burned
12 Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month (which was the
nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, the
captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 13
He burned the house of the Lord and the king's house; all the houses of
Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire. 14 And
all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke
down all the walls of Jerusalem all around. 15 Then Nebuzaradan the captain
of the guard carried away captive some of the poor people, the rest of the
people who remained in the city, the defectors who had deserted to the king
of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. 16 But Nebuzaradan the captain of
the guard left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers.

17 The bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the carts and
the bronze Sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in
pieces, and carried all their bronze to Babylon. 18 They also took away the
pots, the shovels, the trimmers, the [ah]bowls, the spoons, and all the
bronze utensils with which the priests ministered. 19 The basins, the
firepans, the bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the spoons, and the cups,
whatever was solid gold and whatever was solid silver, the captain of the
guard took away. 20 The two pillars, one Sea, the twelve bronze bulls which
were under it, and the carts, which King Solomon had made for the house of
the Lord-the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. 21 Now
concerning the pillars: the height of one pillar was eighteen [ai]cubits, a
measuring line of twelve cubits could measure its circumference, and its
thickness was [aj]four fingers; it was hollow. 22 A capital of bronze was on
it; and the height of one capital was five cubits, with a network and
pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze. The second pillar, with
pomegranates was the same. 23 There were ninety-six pomegranates on the
sides; all the pomegranates, all around on the network, were one hundred.

The People Taken Captive to Babylonia
24 The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the
second priest, and the three doorkeepers. 25 He also took out of the city an
[ak]officer who had charge of the men of war, seven men of the king's close
associates who were found in the city, the principal scribe 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 Nebuzaradan the captain of the
guard took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27 Then
the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land
of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive from its own land.

28 These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the
seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews; 29 in the eighteenth
year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred
and thirty-two persons; 30 in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar,
Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven
hundred and forty-five persons. All the persons were four thousand six
hundred.

Jehoiachin Released from Prison
31 Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of
Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of
the month, that [al]Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his
reign, lifted[am] up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him
out of prison. 32 And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prominent
seat than those of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 33 So
[an]Jehoiachin changed from his prison garments, and he ate bread regularly
before the king all the days of his life. 34 And as for his provisions,
there was a regular ration given him by the king of Babylon, a portion for
each day until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

Footnotes
Jeremiah 49:1 Heb. Malcam, lit. their king; an Ammonite god, 1 Kin. 11:5;
Molech, Lev. 18:21
Jeremiah 49:2 Lit. daughters
Jeremiah 49:3 See v. 1
Jeremiah 49:4 Lit. Your valley is flowing
Jeremiah 49:13 ruin
Jeremiah 49:13 ruins
Jeremiah 49:19 Or thicket
Jeremiah 49:20 Or drag them away
Jeremiah 49:23 anxiety
Jeremiah 49:24 childbirth
Jeremiah 49:32 Lit. cut off at the corner, Jer. 9:26; 25:23
Jeremiah 49:35 Power
Jeremiah 50:2 lift
Jeremiah 50:2 Or Marduk; a Babylonian god
Jeremiah 50:3 Or wander
Jeremiah 50:8 male goats
Jeremiah 50:9 So with some Heb. mss., LXX, Syr.; MT, Tg., Vg. a warrior who
makes childless
Jeremiah 50:11 Or neigh like steeds
Jeremiah 50:21 Or Attack with the sword
Jeremiah 50:29 Qr., some Heb. mss., LXX, Tg. add to her
Jeremiah 50:31 So with MT, Tg.; LXX, Vg. The time of your punishment
Jeremiah 50:38 So with MT, Tg., Vg.; Syr. sword; LXX omits A drought is
Jeremiah 50:44 Or thicket
Jeremiah 51:1 Lit. The Midst of Those Who Rise Up Against Me; a code word
for Chaldea, Babylonia
Jeremiah 51:11 Polish the arrows!
Jeremiah 51:41 A code word for Babylon, Jer. 25:26
Jeremiah 51:44 A Babylonian god
Jeremiah 51:45 Lit. his soul
Jeremiah 51:51 holy places
Jeremiah 51:53 ascend
Jeremiah 51:58 Lit. laid utterly bare
Jeremiah 52:7 Or Arabah; the Jordan Valley
Jeremiah 52:11 shackles
Jeremiah 52:18 basins
Jeremiah 52:21 18 inches each
Jeremiah 52:21 3 inches
Jeremiah 52:25 Lit. eunuch
Jeremiah 52:31 Or Awil-Marduk; lit. The Man of Marduk
Jeremiah 52:31 Showed favor to
Jeremiah 52:33 Lit. he