¹⁹ heads of Judah, and heads of Jerusalem, the officers, and the priests, and all the people of the land those passing through between the pieces of the calf --

³ Her heads in her midst `are' roaring lions, Her judges `are' evening wolves, They have not gnawn the bone in the morning.

⁴ Her prophets unstable -- men of treachery, Her priests have polluted the sanctuary, They have violated the law.

¹⁰ and hearken do all the heads, and all the people who have come in to the covenant to send forth each his man-servant and each his maid-servant free, so as not to lay service on them any more, yea, they hearken, and send them away;

² After the going forth of Jeconiah the king, and the mistress, and the officers, heads of Judah and Jerusalem, and the artificer, and the smith, from Jerusalem --

¹ My wo `is' to me, for I have been As gatherings of summer-fruit, As gleanings of harvest, There is no cluster to eat, The first-ripe fruit desired hath my soul.

² Perished hath the kind out of the land, And upright among men -- there are none, All of them for blood lie in wait, Each his brother they hunt `with' a net.

³ On the evil `are' both hands to do `it' well, The prince is asking -- also the judge -- for recompence, And the great -- he is speaking the mischief of his soul, And they wrap it up.

⁴ Their best one `is' as a brier, The upright one -- than a thorn-hedge, The day of thy watchmen -- Thy visitation -- hath come. Now is their perplexity.

⁵ Believe not in a friend, trust not in a leader, From her who is lying in thy bosom keep the openings of thy mouth.

¹² `And He confirmeth His words that He hath spoken against us, and against our judges who have judged us, to bring in upon us great evil, in that it hath not been done under the whole heavens as it hath been done in Jerusalem,

⁶ and we have not hearkened unto Thy servants, the prophets, who have spoken in Thy name unto our kings, our heads, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

²⁷ Its princes in its midst `are' as wolves, Tearing prey, to shed blood, to destroy souls, For the sake of gaining dishonest gain.

²⁸ And its prophets have daubed for them with chalk, Seeing a vain thing, and divining for them a lie, Saying, `Thus said the Lord Jehovah:' And Jehovah hath not spoken.

²⁹ The people of the land have used oppression, And have taken plunder violently away, And humble and needy have oppressed, And the sojourner oppressed -- without judgment.

³⁰ And I seek of them a man making a fence, And standing in the breach before Me, In behalf of the land -- not to destroy it, And I have not found.

³¹ And I pour out on them mine indignation, By fire of My wrath I have consumed them, Their way on their own head I have put, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah!'

⁷ And Ebed-Melech the Cushite, a eunuch who `is' in the king's house, heareth that they have put Jeremiah into the pit; and the king is sitting at the gate of Benjamin,

¹⁵ And he removeth Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the mother of the king, and the wives of the king, and his eunuchs, and the mighty ones of the land -- he hath caused a removal to go from Jerusalem to Babylon,

¹² and Jehoiachin king of Judah goeth out unto the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his chiefs, and his eunuchs, and the king of Babylon taketh him in the eighth year of his reign,

⁸ `O Lord, to us `is' the shame of face, to our kings, to our heads, and to our fathers, in that we have sinned against Thee.