1A copy of an epistle, which Jeremy sent to them which were to be led captives into Babylon by the king of the Babylonians, to certify them, as it was commanded him of God.
3So when you° be come to Babylon, you° shall remain there many years, and for a long season, namely, seven generations: and after that I will bring you away peaceably from thence.
5Beware therefore that you° in no wise be like to strangers, neither be you° and of them, when you° see the multitude before them and behind them, worshipping them.
8As for their tongue, it is polished by the workman, and they themselves are gilded and laid over with silver; yet are they but false, and can’t speak.
17For like as a vessel that a man uses is nothing worth when it is broken; even so it is with their gods: when they be set up in the temple, their eyes be full of dust through the feet of them that come in.
18And as the doors are made sure on every side upon him that offends the king, as being committed to suffer death: even so the priests make fast their temples with doors, with locks, and bars, lest their gods be spoiled with robbers.
20They are as one of the beams of the temple, yet they say their hearts are gnawed upon by things creeping out of the earth; and when they eat them and their clothes, they feel it not.
24Notwithstanding the gold that is about them to make them beautiful, except they wipe off the rust, they will not shine: for neither when they were molten did they feel it.
27They also that serve them are ashamed: for if they fall to the ground at any time, they can’t rise up again of themselves: neither, if one set them upright, can they move of themselves: neither, if they be bowed down, can they make themselves straight: but they set gifts before them as to dead men.
28As for the things that are sacrificed to them, their priests sell and abuse; in like manner their wives lay up part thereof in salt; but to the poor and impotent they give nothing of it.
39Their gods of wood, and which are overlaid with gold and silver, are like the stones that be hewn out of the mountain: they that worship them shall be confounded.
43The women also with cords about them, sitting in the ways, burn bran for perfume: but if any of them, drawn by some that passes by, lie with him, she reproaches her fellow, that she was not thought as worthy as herself, nor her cord broken.
51And it shall manifestly appear to all nations and kings that they are no gods, but the works of men's hands, and that there is no work of God in them.
55Whereupon when fire falls upon the house of gods of wood, or laid over with gold or silver, their priests will flee away, and escape; but they themselves shall be burned asunder like beams.
58Whose gold, and silver, and garments wherewith they are clothed, they that are strong take, and go away withal: neither are they able to help themselves.
59Therefore it is better to be a king that shows his power, or else a profitable vessel in an house, which the owner shall have use of, than such false gods; or to be a door in an house, to keep such things therein, than such false gods. or a pillar of wood in a palace, than such false gods.
71And likewise their gods of wood, and laid over with silver and gold, are like to a white thorn in an orchard, that every bird sits upon; as also to a dead body, that is east into the dark.
72And you° shall know them to be no gods by the bright purple that rots upon them: and they themselves afterward shall be eaten, and shall be a reproach in the country.
