Jeremiah 5
1“Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its wide places, if you can find a man, if there is anyone who does justly, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her. 2Though they say, ‘As the LORD lives,’ surely they swear falsely.”
3O LORD, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.
4Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know the LORD’s way, nor the law of their God. 5I will go to the great men and will speak to them, for they know the way of the LORD, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. 6Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them. A wolf of the evenings will destroy them. A leopard will watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backsliding has increased.
7“How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes’ houses. 8They were as fed horses roaming at large. Everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife. 9Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says the LORD. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10“Go up on her walls, and destroy, but don’t make a full end. Take away her branches, for they are not the LORD’s. 11For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,” says the LORD.
12They have denied the LORD, and said, “It is not he. Evil won’t come on us. We won’t see sword or famine. 13The prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus it will be done to them.”
14Therefore the LORD, the God of Armies says, “Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it will devour them. 15Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far away, house of Israel,” says the LORD. “It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don’t know and don’t understand what they say. 16Their quiver is an open tomb. They are all mighty men. 17They will eat up your harvest and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat. They will eat up your flocks and your herds. They will eat up your vines and your fig trees. They will beat down your fortified cities in which you trust with the sword.
18“But even in those days,” says the LORD, “I will not make a full end of you. 19It will happen when you say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’
20“Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, 21‘Hear this now, foolish people without understanding, who have eyes, and don’t see, who have ears, and don’t hear: 22Don’t you fear me?’ says the LORD; ‘Won’t you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it can’t pass it? Though its waves toss themselves, yet they can’t prevail. Though they roar, they still can’t pass over it.’
23“But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart. They have revolted and gone. 24They don’t say in their heart, ‘Let’s now fear the LORD our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season, who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’
25“Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you. 26For wicked men are found among my people. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. They set a trap. They catch men. 27As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they have become great, and grew rich. 28They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don’t plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they don’t defend the rights of the needy.
29“Shouldn’t I punish for these things?” says the LORD. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
30“An astonishing and horrible thing has happened in the land. 31The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?
Jeremiah 6
1“Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the middle of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa and raise up a signal on Beth Haccherem, for evil looks out from the north with a great destruction. 2I will cut off the beautiful and delicate one, the daughter of Zion. 3Shepherds with their flocks will come to her. They will pitch their tents against her all around. They will feed everyone in his place.”
4“Prepare war against her! Arise! Let’s go up at noon. Woe to us! For the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out. 5Arise! Let’s go up by night, and let’s destroy her palaces.” 6For the LORD of Armies said, “Cut down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem. This is the city to be visited. She is filled with oppression within herself. 7As a well produces its waters, so she produces her wickedness. Violence and destruction is heard in her. Sickness and wounds are continually before me. 8Be instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from you, lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land.”
9The LORD of Armies says, “They will thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel like a vine. Turn again your hand as a grape gatherer into the baskets.”
10To whom should I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t listen. Behold, the LORD’s word has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it. 11Therefore I am full of the LORD’s wrath. I am weary with holding it in.
“Pour it out on the children in the street,
and on the assembly of young men together;
for even the husband with the wife will be taken,
the aged with him who is full of days.
12Their houses will be turned to others,
their fields and their wives together;
for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD.”
13“For from their least even to their greatest, everyone is given to covetousness.
From the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely.
14They have healed also the hurt of my people superficially,
saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace.
15Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush.
Therefore they will fall among those who fall.
When I visit them, they will be cast down,” says the LORD.
16The LORD says, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ 17I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen!’ 18Therefore hear, you nations, and know, congregation, what is among them. 19Hear, earth! Behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it. 20To what purpose does frankincense from Sheba come to me, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not pleasing to me.”
21Therefore the LORD says, “Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people. The fathers and the sons together will stumble against them. The neighbor and his friend will perish.” 22The LORD says, “Behold, a people comes from the north country. A great nation will be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth. 23They take hold of bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Zion.”
24We have heard its report. Our hands become feeble. Anguish has taken hold of us, and pains as of a woman in labor. 25Don’t go out into the field or walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and terror are on every side. 26Daughter of my people, clothe yourself with sackcloth, and wallow in ashes! Mourn, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, for the destroyer will suddenly come on us.
27“I have made you a tester of metals and a fortress among my people, that you may know and try their way. 28They are all grievous rebels, going around to slander. They are bronze and iron. All of them deal corruptly. 29The bellows blow fiercely. The lead is consumed in the fire. In vain they go on refining, for the wicked are not plucked away. 30Men will call them rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them.”
Jeremiah 7
1The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2“Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim this word there, and say, ‘Hear the LORD’s word, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.’”
3The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says, “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4Don’t trust in lying words, saying, ‘The LORD’s temple, the LORD’s temple, the LORD’s temple, are these.’ 5For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; 6if you don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, and don’t walk after other gods to your own hurt, 7then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forever more. 8Behold, you trust in lying words that can’t profit. 9Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, 10then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered,’ that you may do all these abominations? 11Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it,” says the LORD.
12“But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. 13Now, because you have done all these works,” says the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn’t hear; and I called you, but you didn’t answer; 14therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole offspring of Ephraim.
16“Therefore don’t pray for this people. Don’t lift up a cry or prayer for them or make intercession to me; for I will not hear you. 17Don’t you see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. 19Do they provoke me to anger?” says the LORD. “Don’t they provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?”
20Therefore the Lord GOD says: “Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man, on animal, on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and will not be quenched.”
21The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. 22For I didn’t speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices; 23but this thing I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. Walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ 24But they didn’t listen or turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. 25Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. 26Yet they didn’t listen to me or incline their ear, but made their neck stiff. They did worse than their fathers.
27“You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you. 28You shall tell them, ‘This is the nation that has not listened to the LORD their God’s voice, nor received instruction. Truth has perished, and is cut off from their mouth.’ 29Cut off your hair, and throw it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
30“For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight,” says the LORD. “They have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. 31They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I didn’t command, nor did it come into my mind. 32Therefore behold, the days come”, says the LORD, “that it will no more be called ‘Topheth’ or ‘The valley of the son of Hinnom’, but ‘The valley of Slaughter’; for they will bury in Topheth until there is no place to bury. 33The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth. No one will frighten them away. 34Then I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land will become a waste.”
Jeremiah 8
1“At that time,” says the LORD, “they will bring the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of his princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves. 2They will spread them before the sun, the moon, and all the army of the sky, which they have loved, which they have served, after which they have walked, which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered or be buried. They will be like dung on the surface of the earth. 3Death will be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says the LORD of Armies. 4“Moreover you shall tell them, ‘The LORD says:
“‘Do men fall, and not rise up again?
Does one turn away, and not return?
5Why then have the people of Jerusalem fallen back by a perpetual backsliding?
They cling to deceit.
They refuse to return.
6I listened and heard, but they didn’t say what is right.
No one repents of his wickedness, saying, “What have I done?”
Everyone turns to his course,
as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.
7Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times.
The turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their coming;
but my people don’t know the LORD’s law.
“‘How do you say, “We are wise, and the LORD’s law is with us”?
But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has made that a lie.
9The wise men are disappointed.
They are dismayed and trapped.
Behold, they have rejected the LORD’s word.
What kind of wisdom is in them?
10Therefore I will give their wives to others
and their fields to those who will possess them.
For everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness;
from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely.
11They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying,
“Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.
12Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed.
They couldn’t blush.
Therefore they will fall among those who fall.
In the time of their visitation they will be cast down, says the LORD.
“‘I will utterly consume them, says the LORD.
No grapes will be on the vine,
no figs on the fig tree,
and the leaf will fade.
The things that I have given them
will pass away from them.’”
“Why do we sit still?
Assemble yourselves!
Let’s enter into the fortified cities,
and let’s be silent there;
for the LORD our God has put us to silence,
and given us poisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the LORD.
15We looked for peace, but no good came;
and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!
16The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan.
The whole land trembles at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones;
for they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it,
the city and those who dwell therein.”
17“For, behold, I will send serpents,
adders among you,
which will not be charmed;
and they will bite you,” says the LORD.
18Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow!
My heart is faint within me.
19Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off:
“Isn’t the LORD in Zion?
Isn’t her King in her?”
“Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images,
and with foreign idols?”
“The harvest is past.
The summer has ended,
and we are not saved.”
For the hurt of the daughter of my people, I am hurt.
I mourn.
Dismay has taken hold of me.
22Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then isn’t the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
Jeremiah 9
1Oh that my head were waters,
and my eyes a spring of tears,
that I might weep day and night
for the slain of the daughter of my people!
2Oh that I had in the wilderness
a lodging place of wayfaring men,
that I might leave my people
and go from them!
For they are all adulterers,
an assembly of treacherous men.
3“They bend their tongue,
as their bow, for falsehood.
They have grown strong in the land,
but not for truth;
for they proceed from evil to evil,
and they don’t know me,” says the LORD.
4“Everyone beware of his neighbor,
and don’t trust in any brother;
for every brother will utterly supplant,
and every neighbor will go around like a slanderer.
5Friends deceive each other,
and will not speak the truth.
They have taught their tongue to speak lies.
They weary themselves committing iniquity.
6Your habitation is in the middle of deceit.
Through deceit, they refuse to know me,” says the LORD.
7Therefore the LORD of Armies says,
“Behold, I will melt them and test them;
for how should I deal with the daughter of my people?
8Their tongue is a deadly arrow.
It speaks deceit.
One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth,
but in his heart, he waits to ambush him.
9Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says the LORD.
“Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on a nation such as this?
10I will weep and wail for the mountains,
and lament for the pastures of the wilderness,
because they are burned up, so that no one passes through;
Men can’t hear the voice of the livestock.
Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled.
They are gone.
“I will make Jerusalem heaps,
a dwelling place of jackals.
I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,
without inhabitant.”
12Who is wise enough to understand this? Who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?
13The LORD says, “Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in my ways, 14but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them.” 15Therefore the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink. 16I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.”
17The LORD of Armies says,
“Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come.
Send for the skillful women, that they may come.
18Let them make haste
and take up a wailing for us,
that our eyes may run down with tears
and our eyelids gush out with waters.
19For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion,
‘How we are ruined!
We are greatly confounded
because we have forsaken the land,
because they have cast down our dwellings.’”
Yet hear the LORD’s word, you women.
Let your ear receive the word of his mouth.
Teach your daughters wailing.
Everyone teach her neighbor a lamentation.
21For death has come up into our windows.
It has entered into our palaces
to cut off the children from outside,
and the young men from the streets.
22Speak, “The LORD says,
“‘The dead bodies of men will fall as dung on the open field,
and as the handful after the harvester.
No one will gather them.’”
23The LORD says,
“Don’t let the wise man glory in his wisdom.
Don’t let the mighty man glory in his might.
Don’t let the rich man glory in his riches.
24But let him who glories glory in this,
that he has understanding, and knows me,
that I am the LORD who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on the earth,
for I delight in these things,” says the LORD.
25“Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that I will punish all those who are circumcised only in their flesh: 26Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab, and all who have the corners of their hair cut off, who dwell in the wilderness, for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”
Jeremiah 10
1Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, house of Israel! 2The LORD says,
“Don’t learn the way of the nations,
and don’t be dismayed at the signs of the sky;
for the nations are dismayed at them.
3For the customs of the peoples are vanity;
for one cuts a tree out of the forest,
the work of the hands of the workman with the ax.
4They deck it with silver and with gold.
They fasten it with nails and with hammers,
so that it can’t move.
5They are like a palm tree, of turned work,
and don’t speak.
They must be carried,
because they can’t move.
Don’t be afraid of them;
for they can’t do evil,
neither is it in them to do good.”
6There is no one like you, LORD.
You are great,
and your name is great in might.
7Who shouldn’t fear you,
King of the nations?
For it belongs to you.
Because among all the wise men of the nations,
and in all their royal estate,
there is no one like you.
8But they are together brutish and foolish,
instructed by idols!
It is just wood.
9There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish,
and gold from Uphaz,
the work of the engraver and of the hands of the goldsmith.
Their clothing is blue and purple.
They are all the work of skillful men.
10But the LORD is the true God.
He is the living God,
and an everlasting King.
At his wrath, the earth trembles.
The nations aren’t able to withstand his indignation.
11“You shall say this to them: ‘The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.’”
12God has made the earth by his power.
He has established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens.
13When he utters his voice,
the waters in the heavens roar,
and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightnings for the rain,
and brings the wind out of his treasuries.
14Every man has become brutish and without knowledge.
Every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image;
for his molten image is falsehood,
and there is no breath in them.
15They are vanity, a work of delusion.
In the time of their visitation they will perish.
16The portion of Jacob is not like these;
for he is the maker of all things;
and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance.
The LORD of Armies is his name.
17Gather up your wares out of the land,
you who live under siege.
18For the LORD says,
“Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time,
and will distress them, that they may feel it.”
19Woe is me because of my injury!
My wound is serious;
but I said,
“Truly this is my grief, and I must bear it.”
20My tent has been destroyed,
and all my cords are broken.
My children have gone away from me, and they are no more.
There is no one to spread my tent any more,
to set up my curtains.
21For the shepherds have become brutish,
and have not inquired of the LORD.
Therefore they have not prospered,
and all their flocks have scattered.
22The voice of news, behold, it comes,
and a great commotion out of the north country,
to make the cities of Judah a desolation,
a dwelling place of jackals.
23LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself.
It is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
24LORD, correct me, but gently;
not in your anger,
lest you reduce me to nothing.
25Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you,
and on the families that don’t call on your name;
for they have devoured Jacob.
Yes, they have devoured him, consumed him,
and have laid waste his habitation.
Jeremiah 11
1The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2“Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; 3and say to them, the LORD, the God of Israel says: ‘Cursed is the man who doesn’t hear the words of this covenant, 4which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace,’ saying, ‘Obey my voice and do them, according to all which I command you; so you shall be my people, and I will be your God; 5that I may establish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as it is today.” Then I answered, and said, “Amen, LORD.”
6The LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Hear the words of this covenant, and do them. 7For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and protesting, saying, “Obey my voice.” 8Yet they didn’t obey, nor turn their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of their evil heart. Therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they didn’t do them.’”
9The LORD said to me, “A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers. 11Therefore the LORD says, ‘Behold, I will bring evil on them which they will not be able to escape; and they will cry to me, but I will not listen to them. 12Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to which they offer incense, but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble. 13For according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.’
14“Therefore don’t pray for this people. Don’t lift up cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me because of their trouble.
15What has my beloved to do in my house,
since she has behaved lewdly with many,
and the holy flesh has passed from you?
When you do evil,
then you rejoice.”
The LORD called your name, “A green olive tree,
beautiful with goodly fruit.”
With the noise of a great roar he has kindled fire on it,
and its branches are broken.
17For the LORD of Armies, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done to themselves in provoking me to anger by offering incense to Baal.
18The LORD gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it. Then you showed me their doings. 19But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter. I didn’t know that they had devised plans against me, saying,
“Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit,
and let’s cut him off from the land of the living,
that his name may be no more remembered.”
20But, LORD of Armies, who judges righteously,
who tests the heart and the mind,
I will see your vengeance on them;
for to you I have revealed my cause.
21“Therefore the LORD says concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, ‘You shall not prophesy in the LORD’s name, that you not die by our hand’— 22therefore the LORD of Armies says, ‘Behold, I will punish them. The young men will die by the sword. Their sons and their daughters will die by famine. 23There will be no remnant to them, for I will bring evil on the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.’”
Jeremiah 12
1You are righteous, LORD,
when I contend with you;
yet I would like to plead a case with you.
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why are they all at ease who deal very treacherously?
2You have planted them. Yes, they have taken root.
They grow. Yes, they produce fruit.
You are near in their mouth,
and far from their heart.
3But you, LORD, know me.
You see me, and test my heart toward you.
Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter,
and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
4How long will the land mourn,
and the herbs of the whole country wither?
Because of the wickedness of those who dwell therein,
the animals and birds are consumed;
because they said,
“He won’t see our latter end.”
5“If you have run with the footmen,
and they have wearied you,
then how can you contend with horses?
Though in a land of peace you are secure,
yet how will you do in the pride of the Jordan?
6For even your brothers, and the house of your father,
even they have dealt treacherously with you!
Even they have cried aloud after you!
Don’t believe them,
though they speak beautiful words to you.
“I have forsaken my house.
I have cast off my heritage.
I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.
8My heritage has become to me as a lion in the forest.
She has uttered her voice against me.
Therefore I have hated her.
9Is my heritage to me as a speckled bird of prey?
Are the birds of prey against her all around?
Go, assemble all the animals of the field.
Bring them to devour.
10Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard.
They have trodden my portion under foot.
They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
11They have made it a desolation.
It mourns to me, being desolate.
The whole land is made desolate,
because no one cares.
12Destroyers have come on all the bare heights in the wilderness;
for the sword of the LORD devours from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land.
No flesh has peace.
13They have sown wheat,
and have reaped thorns.
They have exhausted themselves,
and profit nothing.
You will be ashamed of your fruits,
because of the LORD’s fierce anger.”
The LORD says, “Concerning all my evil neighbors, who touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit: Behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them. 15It will happen that after I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them. I will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land. 16It will happen, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, ‘As the LORD lives;’ even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the middle of my people. 17But if they will not hear, then I will pluck up that nation, plucking up and destroying it,” says the LORD.
Jeremiah 13
1The LORD said to me, “Go, and buy yourself a linen belt, and put it on your waist, and don’t put it in water.”
2So I bought a belt according to the LORD’s word, and put it on my waist.
3The LORD’s word came to me the second time, saying, 4“Take the belt that you have bought, which is on your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.”
5So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.
6After many days, the LORD said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the belt from there, which I commanded you to hide there.”
7Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the belt from the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the belt was ruined. It was profitable for nothing.
8Then the LORD’s word came to me, saying, 9“The LORD says, ‘In this way I will ruin the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and have gone after other gods to serve them and to worship them, will even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing. 11For as the belt clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to me,’ says the LORD; ‘that they may be to me for a people, for a name, for praise, and for glory; but they would not hear.’
12“Therefore you shall speak to them this word: ‘The LORD, the God of Israel says, “Every container should be filled with wine.”’ They will tell you, ‘Do we not certainly know that every container should be filled with wine?’ 13Then tell them, ‘The LORD says, “Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. 14I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together,” says the LORD: “I will not pity, spare, or have compassion, that I should not destroy them.”’”
15Hear, and give ear.
Don’t be proud,
for the LORD has spoken.
16Give glory to the LORD your God,
before he causes darkness,
and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains,
and while you look for light,
he turns it into the shadow of death,
and makes it deep darkness.
17But if you will not hear it,
my soul will weep in secret for your pride.
My eye will weep bitterly,
and run down with tears,
because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.
18Say to the king and to the queen mother,
“Humble yourselves.
Sit down, for your crowns have come down,
even the crown of your glory.
19The cities of the South are shut up,
and there is no one to open them.
Judah is carried away captive: all of them.
They are wholly carried away captive.
20Lift up your eyes,
and see those who come from the north.
Where is the flock that was given to you,
your beautiful flock?
21What will you say when he sets over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you?
Won’t sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail?
22If you say in your heart,
“Why have these things come on me?”
Your skirts are uncovered because of the greatness of your iniquity,
and your heels suffer violence.
23Can the Ethiopian change his skin,
or the leopard his spots?
Then may you also do good,
who are accustomed to do evil.
“Therefore I will scatter them
as the stubble that passes away
by the wind of the wilderness.
25This is your lot,
the portion measured to you from me,” says the LORD,
“because you have forgotten me,
and trusted in falsehood.”
26Therefore I will also uncover your skirts on your face,
and your shame will appear.
27I have seen your abominations, even your adulteries
and your neighing, the lewdness of your prostitution,
on the hills in the field.
Woe to you, Jerusalem!
You will not be made clean.
How long will it yet be?”
Jeremiah 14
1This is the LORD’s word that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:
2“Judah mourns,
and its gates languish.
They sit in black on the ground.
The cry of Jerusalem goes up.
3Their nobles send their little ones to the waters.
They come to the cisterns,
and find no water.
They return with their vessels empty.
They are disappointed and confounded,
and cover their heads.
4Because of the ground which is cracked,
because no rain has been in the land,
the plowmen are disappointed.
They cover their heads.
5Yes, the doe in the field also calves and forsakes her young,
because there is no grass.
6The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights.
They pant for air like jackals.
Their eyes fail,
because there is no vegetation.
7Though our iniquities testify against us,
work for your name’s sake, LORD;
for our rebellions are many.
We have sinned against you.
8You hope of Israel,
its Savior in the time of trouble,
why should you be as a foreigner in the land,
and as a wayfaring man who turns aside to stay for a night?
9Why should you be like a scared man,
as a mighty man who can’t save?
Yet you, LORD, are in the middle of us,
and we are called by your name.
Don’t leave us.
10The LORD says to this people:
“Even so they have loved to wander.
They have not restrained their feet.
Therefore the LORD does not accept them.
Now he will remember their iniquity,
and punish them for their sins.”
11The LORD said to me, “Don’t pray for this people for their good. 12When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”
13Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, the prophets tell them, ‘You will not see the sword, neither will you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.’”
14Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I didn’t send them. I didn’t command them. I didn’t speak to them. They prophesy to you a lying vision, divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart. 15Therefore the LORD says concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, but I didn’t send them, yet they say, ‘Sword and famine will not be in this land.’ Those prophets will be consumed by sword and famine. 16The people to whom they prophesy will be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. They will have no one to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, or their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness on them.
17“You shall say this word to them:
“‘Let my eyes run down with tears night and day,
and let them not cease;
for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach,
with a very grievous wound.
18If I go out into the field,
then behold, the slain with the sword!
If I enter into the city,
then behold, those who are sick with famine!
For both the prophet and the priest go about in the land,
and have no knowledge.’”
Have you utterly rejected Judah?
Has your soul loathed Zion?
Why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us?
We looked for peace, but no good came;
and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!
20We acknowledge, LORD, our wickedness,
and the iniquity of our fathers;
for we have sinned against you.
21Do not abhor us, for your name’s sake.
Do not disgrace the throne of your glory.
Remember, and don’t break your covenant with us.
22Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain?
Or can the sky give showers?
Aren’t you he, the LORD our God?
Therefore we will wait for you;
for you have made all these things.
Jeremiah 15
1Then the LORD said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not turn toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go out! 2It will happen when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go out?’ then you shall tell them, ‘The LORD says:
“Such as are for death, to death;
such as are for the sword, to the sword;
such as are for the famine, to the famine;
and such as are for captivity, to captivity.”’
3“I will appoint over them four kinds,” says the LORD: “the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy. 4I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
5For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem?
Who will mourn you?
Who will come to ask of your welfare?
6You have rejected me,” says the LORD.
“You have gone backward.
Therefore I have stretched out my hand against you
and destroyed you.
I am weary of showing compassion.
7I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land.
I have bereaved them of children.
I have destroyed my people.
They didn’t return from their ways.
8Their widows are increased more than the sand of the seas.
I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday.
I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.
9She who has borne seven languishes.
She has given up the spirit.
Her sun has gone down while it was yet day.
She has been disappointed and confounded.
I will deliver their residue to the sword before their enemies,” says the LORD.
Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife,
and a man of contention to the whole earth!
I have not lent, neither have men lent to me;
yet every one of them curses me.
11The LORD said,
“Most certainly I will strengthen you for good.
Most certainly I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you in the time of evil
and in the time of affliction.
12Can one break iron,
even iron from the north, and bronze?
13I will give your substance and your treasures for a plunder without price,
and that for all your sins,
even in all your borders.
14I will make them to pass with your enemies into a land which you don’t know;
for a fire is kindled in my anger,
which will burn on you.”
LORD, you know.
Remember me, visit me,
and avenge me of my persecutors.
You are patient, so don’t take me away.
Know that for your sake I have suffered reproach.
16Your words were found,
and I ate them.
Your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart,
for I am called by your name, LORD, God of Armies.
17I didn’t sit in the assembly of those who make merry and rejoice.
I sat alone because of your hand,
for you have filled me with indignation.
18Why is my pain perpetual,
and my wound incurable,
which refuses to be healed?
Will you indeed be to me as a deceitful brook,
like waters that fail?
19Therefore the LORD says,
“If you return, then I will bring you again,
that you may stand before me;
and if you take out the precious from the vile,
you will be as my mouth.
They will return to you,
but you will not return to them.
20I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall.
They will fight against you,
but they will not prevail against you;
for I am with you to save you
and to deliver you,” says the LORD.
21“I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked,
and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.”