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The message which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. (Now Seraiah was quartermaster.)

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

For through the anger of Yahweh this came about in Jerusalem and Judah until He cast them out from His presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

Now it happened in the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his military force, against Jerusalem, and they camped against it and built a siege wall all around it.

But the military force of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his military force was scattered from him.

Then they seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he spoke his judgment on him.

Then the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all the princes of Judah in Riblah.

Then he blinded the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon and put him in prison until the day of his death.

Now it happened in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison;

and he spoke to him good words, and he set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon.

So Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes and had his meals in the king's presence continually all the days of his life.

For his allowance, a continual allowance was given him by the king of Babylon, a daily portion all the days of his life until the day of his death.

The adversary has stretched out his handOver all her desirable things,For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary,The ones whom You commandedThat they should not enter into Your assembly.

"Is it nothing to all you who pass this way?Look and see if there is any pain like my painWhich was dealt severely to me,Which Yahweh grieved me with on the day of His burning anger.

The yoke of my transgressions is bound;By His hand they are knit together.They have come upon my neck;He has made my strength stumble.The Lord has given me into the handsOf those against whom I am not able to stand.

Zion stretches out her hands;There is no one to comfort her;Yahweh has commanded concerning JacobThat the ones round about him should be his adversaries;Jerusalem has become an impure thing among them.

"Yahweh is righteous;For I have rebelled against His command;Hear now, all peoples,And behold my pain;My virgins and my young menHave gone into captivity.

How the Lord has covered the daughter of ZionWith a cloud in His anger!He has cast from heaven to earthThe beauty of Israel,And has not remembered the footstool of His feetIn the day of His anger.

The Lord has swallowed up; He has not sparedAll the habitations of Jacob.In His wrath He has pulled downThe strongholds of the daughter of Judah;He has brought them down to the ground;He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

In hot anger He has cut in piecesAll the strength of Israel;He has turned back His right handFrom before the enemy.And He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fireDevouring round about.