4 “If you yreturn, O Israel,
declares the Lord,
to me you should return.
If you remove your detestable things from my presence,
and do not waver,
2 and if you zswear, ‘As the Lord lives,’
in truth, in justice, and in righteousness,
then nations shall abless themselves in him,
and in him shall they bglory.”
3 For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:
c“Break up your fallow ground,
and sow not among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;
dremove the foreskin of your hearts,
O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;
elest my wrath go forth like fire,
and burn with none to quench it,
because of the evil of your deeds.”
Disaster from the North
5 Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say,
f“Blow the trumpet through the land;
cry aloud and say,
‘Assemble, and glet us go
into the fortified cities!’
6 Raise a standard toward Zion,
flee for safety, stay not,
for I bring disaster from the hnorth,
and great destruction.
7 A ilion has gone up from his thicket,
a destroyer of nations has set out;
he has gone out from his place
jto make your land a waste;
your cities will be ruins
without inhabitant.
8 For this kput on sackcloth,
lament and wail,
for the fierce anger of the Lord
has not turned back from us.”
9 “In that day, declares the Lord, courage shall fail both lking and officials. The priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded.” 10 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God, surely you have utterly mdeceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, n‘It shall be well with you,’ whereas the sword has reached their very life.”
11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot owind from the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow or cleanse, 12 a wind too full for this comes for me. Now it is I who speak in judgment upon them.”
13 Behold, he comes up like clouds;
his chariots plike the whirlwind;
his qhorses are swifter than eagles—
woe to us, for we are ruined!
14 O Jerusalem, rwash your heart from evil,
that you may be saved.
How long shall your wicked thoughts
lodge within you?
15 For a voice declares from Dan
and proclaims trouble from Mount Ephraim.
16 Warn the nations that he is coming;
announce to Jerusalem,
“Besiegers come sfrom a distant land;
they shout against the cities of Judah.
17 Like keepers of a field are they against her all around,
because she has rebelled against me,
declares the Lord.
18 tYour ways and your deeds
have brought this upon you.
This is your doom, and it is ubitter;
it has reached your very heart.”
Anguish over Judah’s Desolation
19 My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain!
Oh the walls of my heart!
My heart is beating wildly;
I cannot keep silent,
for I hear the sound of the trumpet,
the alarm of war.
20 Crash follows hard on crash;
the whole land is laid waste.
Suddenly my tents are laid waste,
my curtains in a moment.
21 How long must I see the standard
and hear the sound of the trumpet?
22 “For my people are foolish;
they vknow me not;
they are stupid children;
they have no understanding.
They are ‘wise’—in doing evil!
But how to do good they know not.”
23 I looked on the earth, and behold, it was wwithout form and void;
and to the heavens, and they had no light.
24 I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking,
and all the hills moved to and fro.
25 I looked, and behold, there was no man,
and all the xbirds of the air had fled.
26 I looked, and behold, the yfruitful land was a desert,
and all its cities were laid in ruins
before the Lord, before his fierce anger.
27 For thus says the Lord, “The whole land shall be a desolation; zyet I will not make a full end.
28 “For this the earth shall amourn,
and the heavens above be dark;
for I have spoken; I have purposed;
I have not relented, bnor will I turn back.”
29 At the noise of horseman and archer
every city takes to flight;
they enter thickets; they climb among rocks;
all the cities are forsaken,
and no man dwells in them.
30 And you, O desolate one,
what do you mean that you dress in scarlet,
that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,
that you cenlarge your eyes with paint?
In vain you beautify yourself.
Your lovers despise you;
they seek your life.
31 For I heard a cry das of a woman in labor,
anguish as of one giving birth to her first child,
the cry of the edaughter of Zion gasping for breath,
stretching out her hands,
“Woe is me! I am fainting before murderers.”
Jerusalem Refused to Repent
5 Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
look and take note!
Search her squares to see
if you can find a man,
one who does justice
and seeks truth,
that I may pardon her.
2 Though they say, “As the Lord lives,”
yet they fswear falsely.
3 O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?
You have gstruck them down,
but they felt no anguish;
you have consumed them,
but they refused to htake correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
they have refused to repent.
4 Then I said, “These are only the poor;
they have no sense;
for they do not know the way of the Lord,
the ijustice of their God.
5 I will go to the great
and will speak to them,
for they know the way of the Lord,
the justice of their God.”
But they all alike had broken the yoke;
they had jburst the bonds.
6 Therefore a klion from the forest shall strike them down;
a lwolf from the desert shall devastate them.
A mleopard is watching their cities;
everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,
because their transgressions are many,
their apostasies are great.
7 “How can I pardon you?
Your children have nforsaken me
and have osworn by those who are pno gods.
When I fed them to the full,
they committed adultery
and trooped to the houses of whores.
8 They were well-fed, lusty stallions,
each qneighing for his neighbor’s wife.
9 rShall I not punish them for these things?
declares the Lord;
and shall I not savenge myself
on a nation such as this?
10 “Go up through her tvine rows and destroy,
but umake not a full end;
strip away her branches,
for they are not the Lord’s.
11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
have been utterly vtreacherous to me,
declares the Lord.
12 They have spoken falsely of the Lord
and have said, ‘He will do nothing;
wno disaster will come upon us,
xnor shall we see sword or famine.
13 The prophets will become wind;
the word is not in them.
Thus shall it be done to them!’”
The Lord Proclaims Judgment
14 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts:
“Because you have spoken this word,
behold, yI am making my words in your mouth a fire,
and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.
15 Behold, zI am bringing against you
a nation afrom afar, O house of Israel,
declares the Lord.
It is an enduring nation;
it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know,
nor can you understand what they say.
16 Their quiver is like an open tomb;
they are all mighty warriors.
17 They shall beat up your harvest and your food;
they shall eat up your sons and your daughters;
they shall eat up your cflocks and your herds;
they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;
your fortified cities in which you trust
they shall beat down with the sword.”
18 “But even in those days, declares the Lord, I will not make a full end of you. 19 And when your people say, d‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’”
20 Declare this in the house of Jacob;
proclaim it in Judah:
21 “Hear this, O efoolish and senseless people,
fwho have eyes, but see not,
who have ears, but hear not.
22 gDo you not fear me? declares the Lord.
Do you not tremble before me?
hI placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,
a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
23 But this people has a istubborn jand rebellious heart;
they have turned aside and gone away.
24 They do not say in their hearts,
‘Let us fear the Lord our God,
kwho gives the rain in its season,
the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
the weeks appointed for the harvest.’
25 Your iniquities have turned these away,
and your sins have kept good from you.
26 For wicked men are found among my people;
they lurk like fowlers lying in wait.1
They set a trap;
they catch men.
27 Like a cage full of birds,
their houses are full of deceit;
therefore they have become great and rich;
28 they have lgrown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of evil;
they judge not with mjustice
the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,
and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
29 nShall I not punish them for these things?
declares the Lord,
and shall I not avenge myself
on a nation such as this?”
30 An appalling and ohorrible thing
has happened in the land:
31 the prophets prophesy pfalsely,
and the priests rule at their direction;
my people qlove to have it so,
but what will you do when the end comes?
Impending Disaster for Jerusalem
6 Flee for safety, O people of Benjamin,
from the midst of Jerusalem!
rBlow the trumpet in Tekoa,
and sraise a signal on Beth-haccherem,
for disaster looms out of the tnorth,
and great destruction.
2 The lovely and delicately bred I will destroy,
the daughter of Zion.1
3 uShepherds with their flocks shall come against her;
they shall pitch their tents around her;
they shall pasture, each in his place.
4 v“Prepare war against her;
arise, and let us attack wat noon!
Woe to us, for the day declines,
for the shadows of evening lengthen!
5 Arise, and let us attack by night
and destroy her palaces!”
6 For thus says the Lord of hosts:
x“Cut down her trees;
ycast up a siege mound against Jerusalem.
This is the city that must be punished;
there is nothing but oppression within her.
7 As a well keeps its water fresh,
so she keeps fresh her evil;
zviolence and destruction are heard within her;
sickness and wounds are ever before me.
8 Be warned, O Jerusalem,
lest I aturn from you in disgust,
lest I make you a desolation,
an uninhabited land.”
9 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“They shall glean thoroughly as a vine
the remnant of Israel;
like a grape gatherer pass your hand again
over its branches.”
10 bTo whom shall I speak and give warning,
that they may hear?
Behold, their cears are uncircumcised,
they cannot listen;
behold, dthe word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn;
they take no pleasure in it.
11 Therefore I am full of the wrath of the Lord;
eI am weary of holding it in.
“Pour it out upon the fchildren in the street,
and upon the gatherings of young men, also;
both husband and wife shall be taken,
the elderly and the very aged.
12 Their houses shall be turned over to others,
gtheir fields and wives together,
for I will stretch out my hand
against the inhabitants of the land,”
declares the Lord.
13 “For hfrom the least to the greatest of them,
everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
and from iprophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
14 jThey have healed the wound of my people lightly,
ksaying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
15 lWere they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, they were mnot at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,”
says the Lord.
16 Thus says the Lord:
“Stand by the roads, and look,
and ask for the nancient paths,
where the good way is; and walk in it,
oand find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
17 I set pwatchmen over you, saying,
‘Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet!’
But they said, ‘We will not pay attention.’
18 Therefore hear, O nations,
and know, O congregation, what will happen to them.
19 Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people,
the fruit of their devices,
because they have not paid attention to my words;
and as for my law, they have rejected it.
20 qWhat use to me is frankincense that comes from Sheba,
or sweet cane from a distant land?
Your burnt offerings are rnot acceptable,
nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.
21 Therefore thus says the Lord:
‘Behold, I will lay before this people
sstumbling blocks against which they shall stumble;
fathers and sons together,
neighbor and friend shall perish.’”
22 Thus says the Lord:
“Behold, a people is coming from the north country,
a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.
23 tThey lay hold on bow and javelin;
they are cruel and have no mercy;
the sound of them is like the roaring sea;
they ride on horses,
set in array as a man for battle,
against you, O daughter of Zion!”
24 We have uheard the report of it;
our hands fall helpless;
anguish has taken hold of us,
pain as of a woman in labor.
25 Go not out into the field,
nor walk on the road,
for the enemy has a sword;
vterror is on every side.
26 O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth,
and roll in ashes;
make mourning as wfor an only son,
most bitter lamentation,
for suddenly the destroyer
will come upon us.
27 “I have made you a xtester of metals among my people,
that you may know and test their ways.
28 They are all stubbornly rebellious,
going about with yslanders;
zthey are bronze and iron;
all of them act corruptly.
29 The bellows blow fiercely;
the lead is consumed by the fire;
in vain the arefining goes on,
for the wicked are not removed.
30 Rejected silver they are called,
for the Lord has brejected them.”
Evil in the Land
7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 c“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: dAmend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’
5 “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly eexecute justice one with another, 6 if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods fto your own harm, 7 gthen I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is hcalled by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a iden of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. 12 Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, jwhere I made my name dwell at first, and see kwhat I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you lpersistently you did not listen, and mwhen I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore nI will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.
16 “As for you, odo not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the pcities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make qcakes for the rqueen of heaven. And they pour out sdrink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. 19 Is it I whom they provoke? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own shame? 20 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be tpoured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.”
21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, uand eat the flesh. 22 For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, vI did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and wI will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, xthat it may be well with you.’ 24 But ythey did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the zstubbornness of their evil hearts, and went abackward and not forward. 25 From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. 26 bYet cthey did not listen to me or incline their ear, but dstiffened their neck. eThey did worse than their fathers.
27 “So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.
29 f“‘Cut off your hair and cast it away;
graise a lamentation on the bare heights,
for the Lord has rejected and forsaken
the generation of his wrath.’
The Valley of Slaughter
30 “For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. hThey have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. 31 And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, ito burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, jwhich I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. 32 kTherefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will lbury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. 33 And the dead bodies of this people will be mfood for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away. 34 And I will nsilence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem othe voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall become a waste.
8 “At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. 2 And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. And they shall not be gathered or buried. pThey shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. 3 qDeath shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places rwhere I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts.
Sin and Treachery
4 “You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
When men fall, do they not rise again?
If one turns away, does he not return?
5 Why then has this people turned away
in perpetual backsliding?
They hold fast to deceit;
they refuse to return.
6 I have paid attention and listened,
but they have not spoken rightly;
no man relents of his evil,
saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turns to his own course,
like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
7 sEven the stork in the heavens
knows her times,
and the turtledove, swallow, and crane1
keep the time of their coming,
but my people know not
the rules2 of the Lord.
8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise,
and the law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
has made it into a lie.
9 The wise men shall be put to shame;
they shall be dismayed and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
so what wisdom is in them?
10 Therefore I will give ttheir wives to others
and their fields to conquerors,
because ufrom the least to the greatest
everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
11 vThey have healed the wound of my people lightly,
wsaying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
12 xWere they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
says the Lord.
13 yWhen I would gather them, declares the Lord,
there are no grapes on the vine,
nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
and what I gave them has passed away from them.”3
14 Why do we sit still?
Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities
and perish there,
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
and has zgiven us poisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the Lord.
15 aWe looked for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
16 “The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan;
at the sound of the neighing of their stallions
the whole land quakes.
They come and devour the land and all that fills it,
the city and those who dwell in it.
17 For behold, I am sending among you serpents,
adders that cannot be charmed,
and they shall bite you,”
declares the Lord.
Jeremiah Grieves for His People
18 My joy is gone; grief is upon me;4
my heart is sick within me.
19 Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
from the length and breadth of the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
bIs her King not in her?”
“Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images
and cwith their foreign idols?”
20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.”
21 dFor the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
22 Is there no ebalm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of the daughter of my people
not been restored?
