24 Jeremiah(예레미야) 1-17

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The Book of Jeremiah

The Book of Jeremiah is the prophecy of a man divinely called in his youth from the priest-city of Anathoth. A heartbroken prophet with a heartbreaking message, Jeremiah labors for more than forty years proclaiming a message of doom to the stiff-necked people of Judah. Despised and perse cuted by his countrymen, Jeremiah bathes his harsh prophecies in tears of compassion. His broken heart causes him to write a broken book, which is difficult to arrange chronologically or topically. But through his sermons and signs he faithfully declares that surrender to Gods will is the only way to escape calamity.

Yirmeyahu or Yirmeyah literally means “Yahweh Throws,” perhaps in the sense of laying a foundation. It may effectively mean “Yahweh Establishes, Appoints, or Sends.” The Greek form of the Hebrew name in the Septuagint is Hieremias, and the Latin form is Jeremias.

Jeremiah 1

¹The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, ²to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. ³It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.

The Prophet Is Called

⁴Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying:

⁵“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;

Before you were born I sanctified you;

I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

⁶Then said I:

“Ah, Lord GOD!

Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.”

⁷But the LORD said to me:

“Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’

For you shall go to all to whom I send you,

And whatever I command you, you shall speak.

⁸Do not be afraid of their faces,

For I am with you to deliver you,” says the LORD.

⁹Then the LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me:

“Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.

¹⁰See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms,

To root out and to pull down,

To destroy and to throw down,

To build and to plant.”

¹¹Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?”

And I said, “I see a branch of an almond tree.”

¹²Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word.”

¹³And the word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying, “What do you see?”

And I said, “I see a boiling pot, and it is facing away from the north.”

¹⁴Then the LORD said to me:

“Out of the north calamity shall break forth

On all the inhabitants of the land.

¹⁵For behold, I am calling

All the families of the kingdoms of the north,” says the LORD;

“They shall come and each one set his throne

At the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem,

Against all its walls all around,

And against all the cities of Judah.

¹⁶I will utter My judgments

Against them concerning all their wickedness,

Because they have forsaken Me,

Burned incense to other gods,

And worshiped the works of their own hands.

¹⁷“Therefore prepare yourself and arise,

And speak to them all that I command you.

Do not be dismayed before their faces,

Lest I dismay you before them.

¹⁸For behold, I have made you this day

A fortified city and an iron pillar,

And bronze walls against the whole land—

Against the kings of Judah,

Against its princes,

Against its priests,

And against the people of the land.

¹⁹They will fight against you,

But they shall not prevail against you.

For I am with you,” says the LORD, “to deliver you.”

Jeremiah 2

God’s Case Against Israel

¹Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²“Go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD:

“I remember you,

The kindness of your youth,

The love of your betrothal,

When you went after Me in the wilderness,

In a land not sown.

³Israel was holiness to the LORD,

The firstfruits of His increase.

All that devour him will offend;

Disaster will come upon them,” says the LORD.’ ”

⁴Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel. ⁵Thus says the LORD:

“What injustice have your fathers found in Me,

That they have gone far from Me,

Have followed idols,

And have become idolaters?

⁶Neither did they say, ‘Where is the LORD,

Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt,

Who led us through the wilderness,

Through a land of deserts and pits,

Through a land of drought and the shadow of death,

Through a land that no one crossed

And where no one dwelt?’

⁷I brought you into a bountiful country,

To eat its fruit and its goodness.

But when you entered, you defiled My land

And made My heritage an abomination.

⁸The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’

And those who handle the law did not know Me;

The rulers also transgressed against Me;

The prophets prophesied by Baal,

And walked after things that do not profit.

⁹“Therefore I will yet bring charges against you,” says the LORD,

“And against your children’s children I will bring charges.

¹⁰For pass beyond the coasts of Cyprus^a and see,

Send to Kedar^b and consider diligently,

And see if there has been such a thing.

¹¹Has a nation changed its gods,

Which are not gods?

But My people have changed their Glory

For what does not profit.

¹²Be astonished, O heavens, at this,

And be horribly afraid;

Be very desolate,” says the LORD.

¹³“For My people have committed two evils:

They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,

And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.

¹⁴“Is Israel a servant?

Is he a homeborn slave?

Why is he plundered?

¹⁵The young lions roared at him, and growled;

They made his land waste;

His cities are burned, without inhabitant.

¹⁶Also the people of Noph^a and Tahpanhes

Have broken the crown of your head.

¹⁷Have you not brought this on yourself,

In that you have forsaken the LORD your God

When He led you in the way?

¹⁸And now why take the road to Egypt,

To drink the waters of Sihor?

Or why take the road to Assyria,

To drink the waters of the River?^a

¹⁹Your own wickedness will correct you,

And your backslidings will rebuke you.

Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing

That you have forsaken the LORD your God,

And the fear of Me is not in you,”

Says the Lord GOD of hosts.

²⁰“For of old I have broken your yoke and burst your bonds;

And you said, ‘I will not transgress,’

When on every high hill and under every green tree

You lay down, playing the harlot.

²¹Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality.

How then have you turned before Me

Into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?

²²For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap,

Yet your iniquity is marked before Me,” says the Lord GOD.

²³“How can you say, ‘I am not polluted,

I have not gone after the Baals’?

See your way in the valley;

Know what you have done:

You are a swift dromedary breaking loose in her ways,

²⁴A wild donkey used to the wilderness,

That sniffs at the wind in her desire;

In her time of mating, who can turn her away?

All those who seek her will not weary themselves;

In her month they will find her.

²⁵Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst.

But you said, ‘There is no hope.

No! For I have loved aliens, and after them I will go.’

²⁶“As the thief is ashamed when he is found out,

So is the house of Israel ashamed;

They and their kings and their princes, and their priests and their prophets,

²⁷Saying to a tree, ‘You are my father,’

And to a stone, ‘You gave birth to me.’

For they have turned their back to Me, and not their face.

But in the time of their trouble

They will say, ‘Arise and save us.’

²⁸But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves?

Let them arise,

If they can save you in the time of your trouble;

For according to the number of your cities

Are your gods, O Judah.

²⁹“Why will you plead with Me?

You all have transgressed against Me,” says the LORD.

³⁰“In vain I have chastened your children;

They received no correction.

Your sword has devoured your prophets

Like a destroying lion.

³¹“O generation, see the word of the LORD!

Have I been a wilderness to Israel,

Or a land of darkness?

Why do My people say, ‘We are lords;

We will come no more to You’?

³²Can a virgin forget her ornaments,

Or a bride her attire?

Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number.

³³“Why do you beautify your way to seek love?

Therefore you have also taught

The wicked women your ways.

³⁴Also on your skirts is found

The blood of the lives of the poor innocents.

I have not found it by secret search,

But plainly on all these things.

³⁵Yet you say, ‘Because I am innocent,

Surely His anger shall turn from me.’

Behold, I will plead My case against you,

Because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’

³⁶Why do you gad about so much to change your way?

Also you shall be ashamed of Egypt as you were ashamed of Assyria.

³⁷Indeed you will go forth from him

With your hands on your head;

For the LORD has rejected your trusted allies,

And you will not prosper by them.

Jeremiah 3

Israel Is Shameless

¹“They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife,

And she goes from him

And becomes another man’s,

May he return to her again?’

Would not that land be greatly polluted?

But you have played the harlot with many lovers;

Yet return to Me,” says the LORD.

²“Lift up your eyes to the desolate heights and see:

Where have you not lain with men?

By the road you have sat for them

Like an Arabian in the wilderness;

And you have polluted the land

With your harlotries and your wickedness.

³Therefore the showers have been withheld,

And there has been no latter rain.

You have had a harlot’s forehead;

You refuse to be ashamed.

⁴Will you not from this time cry to Me,

‘My Father, You are the guide of my youth?

⁵Will He remain angry forever?

Will He keep it to the end?’

Behold, you have spoken and done evil things,

As you were able.”

A Call to Repentance

⁶The LORD said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: “Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot. ⁷And I said, after she had done all these things, ‘Return to Me.’ But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. ⁸Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. ⁹So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. ¹⁰And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,” says theLORD.

¹¹Then the LORD said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. ¹²Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say:

‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the LORD;

‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you.

For I am merciful,’ says the LORD;

‘I will not remain angry forever.

¹³Only acknowledge your iniquity,

That you have transgressed against the LORD your God,

And have scattered your charms

To alien deities under every green tree,

And you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the LORD.

¹⁴“Return, O backsliding children,” says the LORD; “for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. ¹⁵And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

¹⁶“Then it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days,” says the LORD, “that they will say no more, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ It shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit it, nor shall it be made anymore.

¹⁷“At that time Jerusalem shall be called The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem. No more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts.

¹⁸“In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given as an inheritance to your fathers.

¹⁹“But I said:

‘How can I put you among the children

And give you a pleasant land,

A beautiful heritage of the hosts of nations?’

“And I said:

‘You shall call Me, “My Father,”

And not turn away from Me.’

²⁰Surely, as a wife treacherously departs from her husband,

So have you dealt treacherously with Me,

O house of Israel,” says the LORD.

²¹A voice was heard on the desolate heights,

Weeping and supplications of the children of Israel.

For they have perverted their way;

They have forgotten the LORD their God.

²²“Return, you backsliding children,

And I will heal your backslidings.”

“Indeed we do come to You,

For You are the LORD our God.

²³Truly, in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills,

And from the multitude of mountains;

Truly, in the LORD our God

Is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴For shame has devoured

The labor of our fathers from our youth—

Their flocks and their herds,

Their sons and their daughters.

²⁵We lie down in our shame,

And our reproach covers us.

For we have sinned against the LORD our God,

We and our fathers,

From our youth even to this day,

And have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”

Jeremiah 4

¹“If you will return, O Israel,” says the LORD,

“Return to Me;

And if you will put away your abominations out of My sight,

Then you shall not be moved.

²And you shall swear, ‘The LORD lives,’

In truth, in judgment, and in righteousness;

The nations shall bless themselves in Him,

And in Him they shall glory.”

³For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:

“Break up your fallow ground,

And do not sow among thorns.

⁴Circumcise yourselves to the LORD,

And take away the foreskins of your hearts,

You men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,

Lest My fury come forth like fire,

And burn so that no one can quench it,

Because of the evil of your doings.”

An Imminent Invasion

⁵Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say:

“Blow the trumpet in the land;

Cry, ‘Gather together,’

And say, ‘Assemble yourselves,

And let us go into the fortified cities.’

⁶Set up the standard toward Zion.

Take refuge! Do not delay!

For I will bring disaster from the north,

And great destruction.”

⁷The lion has come up from his thicket,

And the destroyer of nations is on his way.

He has gone forth from his place

To make your land desolate.

Your cities will be laid waste,

Without inhabitant.

⁸For this, clothe yourself with sackcloth,

Lament and wail.

For the fierce anger of the LORD

Has not turned back from us.

⁹“And it shall come to pass in that day,” says the LORD,

“That the heart of the king shall perish,

And the heart of the princes;

The priests shall be astonished,

And the prophets shall wonder.”

¹⁰Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD!

Surely You have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem,

Saying, ‘You shall have peace,’

Whereas the sword reaches to the heart.”

¹¹At that time it will be said

To this people and to Jerusalem,

“A dry wind of the desolate heights blows in the wilderness

Toward the daughter of My people—

Not to fan or to cleanse—

¹²A wind too strong for these will come for Me;

Now I will also speak judgment against them.”

¹³“Behold, he shall come up like clouds,

And his chariots like a whirlwind.

His horses are swifter than eagles.

Woe to us, for we are plundered!”

¹⁴O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness,

That you may be saved.

How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?

¹⁵For a voice declares from Dan

And proclaims affliction from Mount Ephraim:

¹⁶“Make mention to the nations,

Yes, proclaim against Jerusalem,

That watchers come from a far country

And raise their voice against the cities of Judah.

¹⁷Like keepers of a field they are against her all around,

Because she has been rebellious against Me,” says the LORD.

¹⁸“Your ways and your doings

Have procured these things for you.

This is your wickedness,

Because it is bitter,

Because it reaches to your heart.”

Sorrow for the Doomed Nation

¹⁹O my soul, my soul!

I am pained in my very heart!

My heart makes a noise in me;

I cannot hold my peace,

Because you have heard, O my soul,

The sound of the trumpet,

The alarm of war.

²⁰Destruction upon destruction is cried,

For the whole land is plundered.

Suddenly my tents are plundered,

And my curtains in a moment.

²¹How long will I see the standard,

And hear the sound of the trumpet?

²²“For My people are foolish,

They have not known Me.

They are silly children,

And they have no understanding.

They are wise to do evil,

But to do good they have no knowledge.”

²³I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form, and void;

And the heavens, they had no light.

²⁴I beheld the mountains, and indeed they trembled,

And all the hills moved back and forth.

²⁵I beheld, and indeed there was no man,

And all the birds of the heavens had fled.

²⁶I beheld, and indeed the fruitful land was a wilderness,

And all its cities were broken down

At the presence of the LORD,

By His fierce anger.

²⁷For thus says the LORD:

“The whole land shall be desolate;

Yet I will not make a full end.

²⁸For this shall the earth mourn,

And the heavens above be black,

Because I have spoken.

I have purposed and will not relent,

Nor will I turn back from it.

²⁹The whole city shall flee from the noise of the horsemen and bowmen.

They shall go into thickets and climb up on the rocks.

Every city shall be forsaken,

And not a man shall dwell in it.

³⁰“And when you are plundered,

What will you do?

Though you clothe yourself with crimson,

Though you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,

Though you enlarge your eyes with paint,

In vain you will make yourself fair;

Your lovers will despise you;

They will seek your life.

³¹“For I have heard a voice as of a woman in labor,

The anguish as of her who brings forth her first child,

The voice of the daughter of Zion bewailing herself;

She spreads her hands, saying,

‘Woe is me now, for my soul is weary

Because of murderers!’

Jeremiah 5

The Justice of God’s Judgment

¹“Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem;

See now and know;

And seek in her open places

If you can find a man,

If there is anyone who executes judgment,

Who seeks the truth,

And I will pardon her.

²Though they say, ‘As the LORD lives,’

Surely they swear falsely.”

³O LORD, are not Your eyes on the truth?

You have stricken them,

But they have not grieved;

You have consumed them,

But they have refused to receive correction.

They have made their faces harder than rock;

They have refused to return.

⁴Therefore I said, “Surely these are poor.

They are foolish;

For they do not know the way of the LORD,

The judgment of their God.

⁵I will go to the great men and speak to them,

For they have known the way of the LORD,

The judgment of their God.”

But these have altogether broken the yoke

And burst the bonds.

⁶Therefore a lion from the forest shall slay them,

A wolf of the deserts shall destroy them;

A leopard will watch over their cities.

Everyone who goes out from there shall be torn in pieces,

Because their transgressions are many;

Their backslidings have increased.

⁷“How shall I pardon you for this?

Your children have forsaken Me

And sworn by those that are not gods.

When I had fed them to the full,

Then they committed adultery

And assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.

⁸They were like well-fed lusty stallions;

Every one neighed after his neighbor’s wife.

⁹Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the LORD.

“And shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

¹⁰“Go up on her walls and destroy,

But do not make a complete 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 with Me,” says the LORD.

¹²They have lied about the LORD,

And said, “It is not He.

Neither will evil come upon us,

Nor shall we see sword or famine.

¹³And the prophets become wind,

For the word is not in them.

Thus shall it be done to them.”

¹⁴Therefore thus says the LORD God of hosts:

“Because you speak this word,

Behold, I will make My words in your mouth fire,

And this people wood,

And it shall devour them.

¹⁵Behold, I will bring a nation against you from afar,

O house of Israel,” says the LORD.

“It is a mighty nation,

It is an ancient nation,

A nation whose language you do not know,

Nor can you understand what they say.

¹⁶Their quiver is like an open tomb;

They are all mighty men.

¹⁷And they shall eat up your harvest and your bread,

Which your sons and daughters should eat.

They shall eat up your flocks and your herds;

They shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;

They shall destroy your fortified cities,

In which you trust, with the sword.

¹⁸“Nevertheless in those days,” says the LORD, “I will not make a complete end of you. ¹⁹And it will be when you say, ‘Why does the LORD our God do all these things to us?’ then you shall answer them, ‘Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours.’

²⁰“Declare this in the house of Jacob

And proclaim it in Judah, saying,

²¹‘Hear this now, O foolish people,

Without understanding,

Who have eyes and see not,

And who have ears and hear not:

²²Do you not fear Me?’ says the LORD.

‘Will you not tremble at My presence,

Who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea,

By a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it?

And though its waves toss to and fro,

Yet they cannot prevail;

Though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it.

²³But this people has a defiant and rebellious heart;

They have revolted and departed.

²⁴They do not say in their heart,

“Let us now fear the LORD our God,

Who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season.

He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.”

²⁵Your iniquities have turned these things away,

And your sins have withheld good from you.

²⁶‘For among My people are found wicked men;

They lie in wait as one who sets snares;

They set a trap;

They catch men.

²⁷As a cage is full of birds,

So their houses are full of deceit.

Therefore they have become great and grown rich.

²⁸They have grown fat, they are sleek;

Yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked;

They do not plead the cause,

The cause of the fatherless;

Yet they prosper,

And the right of the needy they do not defend.

²⁹Shall I not punish them for these things?’ says the LORD.

‘Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?’

³⁰“An astonishing and horrible thing

Has been committed in the land:

³¹The prophets prophesy falsely,

And the priests rule by their own power;

And My people love to have it so.

But what will you do in the end?

Jeremiah 6

Impending Destruction from the North

¹“O you children of Benjamin,

Gather yourselves to flee from the midst of Jerusalem!

Blow the trumpet in Tekoa,

And set up a signal-fire in Beth Haccerem;

For disaster appears out of the north,

And great destruction.

²I have likened the daughter of Zion

To a lovely and delicate woman.

³The shepherds with their flocks shall come to her.

They shall pitch their tents against her all around.

Each one shall pasture in his own place.”

⁴“Prepare war against her;

Arise, and let us go up at noon.

Woe to us, for the day goes away,

For the shadows of the evening are lengthening.

⁵Arise, and let us go by night,

And let us destroy her palaces.”

⁶For thus has the LORD of hosts said:

“Cut down trees,

And build a mound against Jerusalem.

This is the city to be punished.

She is full of oppression in her midst.

⁷As a fountain wells up with water,

So she wells up with her wickedness.

Violence and plundering are heard in her.

Before Me continually are grief and wounds.

⁸Be instructed, O Jerusalem,

Lest My soul depart from you;

Lest I make you desolate,

A land not inhabited.”

⁹Thus says the LORD of hosts:

“They shall thoroughly glean as a vine the remnant of Israel;

As a grape-gatherer, put your hand back into the branches.”

¹⁰To whom shall I speak and give warning,

That they may hear?

Indeed their ear is uncircumcised,

And they cannot give heed.

Behold, the word of the LORD is a reproach to them;

They have no delight in it.

¹¹Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD.

I am weary of holding it in.

“I will pour it out on the children outside,

And on the assembly of young men together;

For even the husband shall be taken with the wife,

The aged with him who is full of days.

¹²And their houses shall be turned over to others,

Fields and wives together;

For I will stretch out My hand

Against the inhabitants of the land,” says the LORD.

¹³“Because from the least of them even to the greatest of them,

Everyone is given to covetousness;

And from the prophet even to the priest,

Everyone deals falsely.

¹⁴They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly,

Saying, ‘Peace, peace!’

When there is no peace.

¹⁵Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?

No! They were not at all ashamed;

Nor did they know how to blush.

Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;

At the time I punish them,

They shall be cast down,” says the LORD.

¹⁶Thus says the LORD:

“Stand in the ways and see,

And ask for the old paths, where the good way is,

And walk in it;

Then you will find rest for your souls.

But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

¹⁷Also, I 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, O congregation, what is among them.

¹⁹Hear, O earth!

Behold, I will certainly bring calamity on this people—

The fruit of their thoughts,

Because they have not heeded My words

Nor My law, but rejected it.

²⁰For what purpose to Me

Comes frankincense from Sheba,

And sweet cane from a far country?

Your burnt offerings are not acceptable,

Nor your sacrifices sweet to Me.”

²¹Therefore thus says the LORD:

“Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people,

And the fathers and the sons together shall fall on them.

The neighbor and his friend shall perish.”

²²Thus says the LORD:

“Behold, a people comes from the north country,

And a great nation will be raised from the farthest parts of the earth.

²³They will lay hold on bow and spear;

They are cruel and have no mercy;

Their voice roars like the sea;

And they ride on horses,

As men of war set in array against you, O daughter of Zion.”

²⁴We have heard the report of it;

Our hands grow feeble.

Anguish has taken hold of us,

Pain as of a woman in labor.

²⁵Do not go out into the field,

Nor walk by the way.

Because of the sword of the enemy,

Fear is on every side.

²⁶O daughter of my people,

Dress in sackcloth

And roll about in ashes!

Make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation;

For the plunderer will suddenly come upon us.

²⁷“I have set you as an assayer and a fortress among My people,

That you may know and test their way.

²⁸They are all stubborn rebels, walking as slanderers.

They are bronze and iron,

They are all corrupters;

²⁹The bellows blow fiercely,

The lead is consumed by the fire;

The smelter refines in vain,

For the wicked are not drawn off.

³⁰People will call them rejected silver,

Because the LORD has rejected them.”

Jeremiah 7

Trusting in Lying Words

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, ²“Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the LORD!’ ” ³Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. ⁴Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.’

⁵“For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, ⁶if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, ⁷then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

⁸“Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. ⁹Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, ¹⁰and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? ¹¹Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the LORD.

¹²“But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. ¹³And now, because you have done all these works,” says the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer, ¹⁴therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. ¹⁵And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren—the whole posterity of Ephraim.

¹⁶“Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you. ¹⁷Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger. ¹⁹Do they provoke Me to anger?” says the LORD. “Do they notprovoke themselves, to the shame of their own faces?”

²⁰Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place—on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and not be quenched.”

²¹Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. ²²For I did not 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 is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ ²⁴Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. ²⁵Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. ²⁶Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.

²⁷“Therefore you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.

Judgment on Obscene Religion

²⁸“So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. ²⁹Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’ ³⁰For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the LORD. “They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to pollute it.³¹And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.

³²“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “when it will no more be called Tophet, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Tophet until there is no room. ³³The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. And 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 shall be desolate.

Jeremiah 8

¹“At that time,” says the LORD, “they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves. ²They shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served and after which they have walked, which they have sought and which they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered nor buried; they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. ³Then death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says the LORD of hosts.

The Peril of False Teaching

⁴“Moreover you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD:

“Will they fall and not rise?

Will one turn away and not return?

⁵Why has this people slidden back,

Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding?

They hold fast to deceit,

They refuse to return.

⁶I listened and heard,

But they do not speak aright.

No man repented of his wickedness,

Saying, ‘What have I done?’

Everyone turned to his own course,

As the horse rushes into the battle.

⁷“Even the stork in the heavens

Knows her appointed times;

And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow

Observe the time of their coming.

But My people do not know the judgment of the LORD.

⁸“How can you say, ‘We are wise,

And the law of the LORD is with us’?

Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood.

⁹The wise men are ashamed,

They are dismayed and taken.

Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD;

So what wisdom do they have?

¹⁰Therefore I will give their wives to others,

And their fields to those who will inherit them;

Because from the least even to the greatest

Everyone is given to covetousness;

From the prophet even to the priest

Everyone deals falsely.

¹¹For they 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,

Nor did they know how to blush.

Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;

In the time of their punishment

They shall be cast down,” says the LORD.

¹³“I will surely consume them,” says the LORD.

“No grapes shall be on the vine,

Nor figs on the fig tree,

And the leaf shall fade;

And the things I have given them shall pass away from them.” ’ ”

¹⁴“Why do we sit still?

Assemble yourselves,

And let us enter the fortified cities,

And let us be silent there.

For the LORD our God has put us to silence

And given us water of gall to drink,

Because we have sinned against the LORD.

¹⁵“We looked for peace, but no good came;

And for a time of health, and there was trouble!

¹⁶The snorting of His horses was heard from Dan.

The whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of His strong ones;

For they have come and devoured the land and all that is in it,

The city and those who dwell in it.”

¹⁷“For behold, I will send serpents among you,

Vipers which cannot be charmed,

And they shall bite you,” says the LORD.

The Prophet Mourns for the People

¹⁸I would comfort myself in sorrow;

My heart is faint in me.

¹⁹Listen! The voice,

The cry of the daughter of my people

From a far country:

“Is not the LORD in Zion?

Is not her King in her?”

“Why have they provoked Me to anger

With their carved images—

With foreign idols?”

²⁰“The harvest is past,

The summer is ended,

And we are not saved!”

²¹For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt.

I am mourning;

Astonishment has taken hold of me.

²²Is there no balm in Gilead,

Is there no physician there?

Why then is there no recovery

For the health of the daughter of my people?

Jeremiah 9

¹Oh, that my head were waters,

And my eyes a fountain 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 for travelers;

That I might leave my people,

And go from them!

For they are all adulterers,

An assembly of treacherous men.

³“And like their bow they have bent their tongues for lies.

They are not valiant for the truth on the earth.

For they proceed from evil to evil,

And they do not know Me,” says the LORD.

⁴“Everyone take heed to his neighbor,

And do not trust any brother;

For every brother will utterly supplant,

And every neighbor will walk with slanderers.

⁵Everyone will deceive his neighbor,

And will not speak the truth;

They have taught their tongue to speak lies;

They weary themselves to commit iniquity.

⁶Your dwelling place is in the midst of deceit;

Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” says the LORD.

⁷Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts:

“Behold, I will refine them and try them;

For how shall I deal with the daughter of My people?

⁸Their tongue is an arrow shot out;

It speaks deceit;

One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth,

But in his heart he lies in wait.

⁹Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the LORD.

“Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?”

¹⁰I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,

And for the dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation,

Because they are burned up,

So that no one can pass through;

Nor can men hear the voice of the cattle.

Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled;

They are gone.

¹¹“I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a den of jackals.

I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.”

¹²Who is the wise man who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORDhas spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through?

¹³And the LORD said, “Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it, ¹⁴but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them,” ¹⁵therefore thus says the LORDof hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. ¹⁶I will scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them.”

The People Mourn in Judgment

¹⁷Thus says the LORD of hosts:

“Consider and call for the mourning women,

That they may come;

And send for skillful wailing women,

That they may come.

¹⁸Let them make haste

And take up a wailing for us,

That our eyes may run with tears,

And our eyelids gush with water.

¹⁹For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion:

‘How we are plundered!

We are greatly ashamed,

Because we have forsaken the land,

Because we have been cast out of our dwellings.’ ”

²⁰Yet hear the word of the LORD, O women,

And let your ear receive the word of His mouth;

Teach your daughters wailing,

And everyone her neighbor a lamentation.

²¹For death has come through our windows,

Has entered our palaces,

To kill off the children— no longer to be outside!

And the young men— no longer on the streets!

²²Speak, “Thus says the LORD:

‘Even the carcasses of men shall fall as refuse on the open field,

Like cuttings after the harvester,

And no one shall gather them.’ ”

²³Thus says the LORD:

“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,

Let not the mighty man glory in his might,

Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;

²⁴But let him who glories glory in this,

That he understands and knows Me,

That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.

For in these I delight,” says the LORD.

²⁵“Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that I will punish all who are circumcised with the uncircumcised— ²⁶Egypt, Judah, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, and all who are in the farthest corners, who dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.”

Jeremiah 10

Idols and the True God

¹Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel.

²Thus says the LORD:

“Do not learn the way of the Gentiles;

Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven,

For the Gentiles are dismayed at them.

³For the customs of the peoples are futile;

For one cuts a tree from the forest,

The work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.

⁴They decorate it with silver and gold;

They fasten it with nails and hammers

So that it will not topple.

⁵They are upright, like a palm tree,

And they cannot speak;

They must be carried,

Because they cannot go by themselves.

Do not be afraid of them,

For they cannot do evil,

Nor can they do any good.”

⁶Inasmuch as there is none like You, O LORD

(You are great, and Your name is great in might),

⁷Who would not fear You, O King of the nations?

For this is Your rightful due.

For among all the wise men of the nations,

And in all their kingdoms,

There is none like You.

⁸But they are altogether dull-hearted and foolish;

A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine.

⁹Silver is beaten into plates;

It is brought from Tarshish,

And gold from Uphaz,

The work of the craftsman

And of the hands of the metalsmith;

Blue and purple are their clothing;

They are all the work of skillful men.

¹⁰But the LORD is the true God;

He is the living God and the everlasting King.

At His wrath the earth will tremble,

And the nations will not be able to endure His indignation.

¹¹Thus you shall say to them: “The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.”

¹²He has made the earth by His power,

He has established the world by His wisdom,

And has stretched out the heavens at His discretion.

¹³When He utters His voice,

There is a multitude of waters in the heavens:

“And He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth.

He makes lightning for the rain,

He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”^a

¹⁴Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge;

Every metalsmith is put to shame by an image;

For his molded image is falsehood,

And there is no breath in them.

¹⁵They are futile, a work of errors;

In the time of their punishment they shall perish.

¹⁶The Portion of Jacob is not like them,

For He is the Maker of all things,

And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance;

The LORD of hosts is His name.

The Coming Captivity of Judah

¹⁷Gather up your wares from the land,

O inhabitant of the fortress!

¹⁸For thus says the LORD:

“Behold, I will throw out at this time

The inhabitants of the land,

And will distress them,

That they may find it so.”

¹⁹Woe is me for my hurt!

My wound is severe.

But I say, “Truly this is an infirmity,

And I must bear it.”

²⁰My tent is plundered,

And all my cords are broken;

My children have gone from me,

And they are no more.

There is no one to pitch my tent anymore,

Or set up my curtains.

²¹For the shepherds have become dull-hearted,

And have not sought the LORD;

Therefore they shall not prosper,

And all their flocks shall be scattered.

²²Behold, the noise of the report has come,

And a great commotion out of the north country,

To make the cities of Judah desolate, a den of jackals.

²³O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself;

It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.

²⁴O LORD, correct me, but with justice;

Not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing.

²⁵Pour out Your fury on the Gentiles, who do not know You,

And on the families who do not call on Your name;

For they have eaten up Jacob,

Devoured him and consumed him,

And made his dwelling place desolate.

Jeremiah 11

The Broken Covenant

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, ‘Thus says theLORD God of Israel: “Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant ⁴which I commanded your fathers in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so shall you be My people, and I will be your God,’ ⁵that I may establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them ‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’^a as it is this day.” ’ ”

And I answered and said, “So be it, LORD.”

⁶Then the 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 exhorted your fathers in the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, until this day, rising early and exhorting, saying, “Obey My voice.” ⁸Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone followed the dictates of his evil heart; therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but which they have not done.’ ”

⁹And the LORD said to me, “A conspiracy has been 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, and 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 thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will surely bring calamity on them which they will not be able to escape; and though they cry out to Me, I will not listen to them. ¹²Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom 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 were your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars to that shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal.

¹⁴“So do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to Me because of their trouble.

¹⁵“What has My beloved to do in My house,

Having done lewd deeds with many?

And the holy flesh has passed from you.

When you do evil, then you rejoice.

¹⁶The LORD called your name,

Green Olive Tree, Lovely and of Good Fruit.

With the noise of a great tumult

He has kindled fire on it,

And its branches are broken.

¹⁷“For the LORD of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced doom against you for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke Me to anger in offering incense to Baal.”

Jeremiah’s Life Threatened

¹⁸Now the LORD gave me knowledge of it, and I know it; for You showed me their doings. ¹⁹But Iwas like a docile lamb brought to the slaughter; and I did not know that they had devised schemes against me, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more.”

²⁰But, O LORD of hosts,

You who judge righteously,

Testing the mind and the heart,

Let me see Your vengeance on them,

For to You I have revealed my cause.

²¹“Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth who seek your life, saying, ‘Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, lest you die by our hand’— ²²therefore thus says the LORDof hosts: ‘Behold, I will punish them. The young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine; ²³and there shall be no remnant of them, for I will bring catastrophe on the men of Anathoth, even the year of their punishment.’ ”

Jeremiah 12

Jeremiah’s Question

¹Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead with You;

Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments.

Why does the way of the wicked prosper?

Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?

²You have planted them, yes, they have taken root;

They grow, yes, they bear fruit.

You are near in their mouth

But far from their mind.

³But You, O LORD, know me;

You have seen me,

And You have tested 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 every field wither?

The beasts and birds are consumed,

For the wickedness of those who dwell there,

Because they said, “He will not see our final end.”

The LORD Answers Jeremiah

⁵“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you,

Then how can you contend with horses?

And if in the land of peace,

In which you trusted, they wearied you,

Then how will you do in the floodplain^a of the Jordan?

⁶For even your brothers, the house of your father,

Even they have dealt treacherously with you;

Yes, they have called a multitude after you.

Do not believe them,

Even though they speak smooth words to you.

⁷“I have forsaken My house, I have left My heritage;

I have given the dearly beloved of My soul into the hand of her enemies.

⁸My heritage is to Me like a lion in the forest;

It cries out against Me;

Therefore I have hated it.

⁹My heritage is to Me like a speckled vulture;

The vultures all around are against her.

Come, assemble all the beasts of the field,

Bring them to devour!

¹⁰“Many rulers^a have destroyed My vineyard,

They have trodden My portion underfoot;

They have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.

¹¹They have made it desolate;

Desolate, it mourns to Me;

The whole land is made desolate,

Because no one takes it to heart.

¹²The plunderers have come

On all the desolate heights in the wilderness,

For the sword of the LORD shall devour

From one end of the land to the other end of the land;

No flesh shall have peace.

¹³They have sown wheat but reaped thorns;

They have put themselves to pain but do not profit.

But be ashamed of your harvest

Because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”

¹⁴Thus says the LORD: “Against all My evil neighbors who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Israel to inherit—behold, I will pluck them out of their land and pluck out the house of Judah from among them. ¹⁵Then it shall be, after I have plucked them out, that I will return and have compassion on them and bring them back, everyone to his heritage and everyone to his land. ¹⁶And it shall be, if they will learn carefully the ways of My people, to swear by My name, ‘As the LORD lives,’ as they taught My people to swear by Baal, then they shall be established in the midst of My people. ¹⁷But if they do not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation,” says the LORD.

Jeremiah 13

Symbol of the Linen Sash

¹Thus the LORD said to me: “Go and get yourself a linen sash, and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water.” ²So I got a sash according to the word of the LORD, and put it around my waist.

³And the word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying, ⁴“Take the sash that you acquired, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates,^a and hide it there in a hole in the rock.” ⁵So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.

⁶Now it came to pass after many days that the LORD said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the sash which I commanded you to hide there.” ⁷Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the sash from the place where I had hidden it; and there was the sash, ruined. It was profitable for nothing.

⁸Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ⁹“Thus says the LORD: ‘In this manner I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. ¹⁰This evil people, who refuse to hear My words, who follow the dictates of their hearts, and walk after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be just like this sash which is profitable for nothing. ¹¹For as the sash 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 become My people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but they would not hear.’

Symbol of the Wine Bottles

¹²“Therefore you shall speak to them this word: ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel: “Every bottle shall be filled with wine.” ’

And they will say to you, ‘Do we not certainly know that every bottle will be filled with wine?’

¹³“Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: “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! ¹⁴And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together,” says the LORD. “I will not pity nor spare nor have mercy, but will destroy them.” ’ ”

Pride Precedes Captivity

¹⁵Hear and give ear:

Do not 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 are looking for light,

He turns it into the shadow of death

And makes it dense darkness.

¹⁷But if you will not hear it,

My soul will weep in secret for your pride;

My eyes 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 rule shall collapse, the crown of your glory.”

¹⁹The cities of the South shall be shut up,

And no one shall open them;

Judah shall be carried away captive, all of it;

It shall be 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 sheep?

²¹What will you say when He punishes you?

For you have taught them

To be chieftains, to be head over you.

Will not pangs seize you,

Like a woman in labor?

²²And if you say in your heart,

“Why have these things come upon me?”

For the greatness of your iniquity

Your skirts have been uncovered,

Your heels made bare.

²³Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots?

Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.

²⁴“Therefore I will scatter them like stubble

That passes away by the wind of the wilderness.

²⁵This is your lot,

The portion of your measures from Me,” says the LORD,

“Because you have forgotten Me

And trusted in falsehood.

²⁶Therefore I will uncover your skirts over your face,

That your shame may appear.

²⁷I have seen your adulteries

And your lustful neighings,

The lewdness of your harlotry,

Your abominations on the hills in the fields.

Woe to you, O Jerusalem!

Will you still not be made clean?”

Jeremiah 14

Sword, Famine, and Pestilence

¹The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts.

²“Judah mourns,

And her gates languish;

They mourn for the land,

And the cry of Jerusalem has gone up.

³Their nobles have sent their lads for water;

They went to the cisterns and found no water.

They returned with their vessels empty;

They were ashamed and confounded

And covered their heads.

⁴Because the ground is parched,

For there was no rain in the land,

The plowmen were ashamed;

They covered their heads.

⁵Yes, the deer also gave birth in the field,

But left because there was no grass.

⁶And the wild donkeys stood in the desolate heights;

They sniffed at the wind like jackals;

Their eyes failed because there was no grass.”

⁷O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us,

Do it for Your name’s sake;

For our backslidings are many,

We have sinned against You.

⁸O the Hope of Israel, his Savior in time of trouble,

Why should You be like a stranger in the land,

And like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?

⁹Why should You be like a man astonished,

Like a mighty one who cannot save?

Yet You, O LORD, are in our midst,

And we are called by Your name;

Do not leave us!

¹⁰Thus says the LORD to this people:

“Thus they have loved to wander;

They have not restrained their feet.

Therefore the LORD does not accept them;

He will remember their iniquity now,

And punish their sins.”

¹¹Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for this people, for their good. ¹²When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.”

¹³Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.’ ”

¹⁴And the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart. ¹⁵Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name, whom I did not send, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not be in this land’—‘By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed! ¹⁶And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; they will have no one to bury them—them nor their wives, their sons nor their daughters—for I will pour their wickedness on them.’

¹⁷“Therefore you shall say this word to them:

‘Let my eyes flow with tears night and day,

And let them not cease;

For the virgin daughter of my people

Has been broken with a mighty stroke, with a very severe blow.

¹⁸If I go out to the field,

Then behold, those slain with the sword!

And if I enter the city,

Then behold, those sick from famine!

Yes, both prophet and priest go about in a land they do not know.’ ”

The People Plead for Mercy

¹⁹Have You utterly rejected Judah?

Has Your soul loathed Zion?

Why have You stricken us so that there is no healing for us?

We looked for peace, but there was no good;

And for the time of healing, and there was trouble.

²⁰We acknowledge, O 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, do not break Your covenant with us.

²²Are there any among the idols of the nations that can cause rain?

Or can the heavens give showers?

Are You not He, O LORD our God?

Therefore we will wait for You,

Since You have made all these.

Jeremiah 15

The LORD Will Not Relent

¹Then the LORD said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not befavorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth. ²And it shall be, if they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the LORD:

“Such as are for death, to death;

And such as are for the sword, to the sword;

And such as are for the famine, to the famine;

And such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.” ’

³“And I will appoint over them four forms of destruction,” says the LORD: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. ⁴I will hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

⁵“For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem?

Or who will bemoan you?

Or who will turn aside to ask how you are doing?

⁶You have forsaken Me,” says the LORD,

“You have gone backward.

Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you;

I am weary of relenting!

⁷And I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land;

I will bereave them of children;

I will destroy My people,

Since they do not return from their ways.

⁸Their widows will be increased to Me more than the sand of the seas;

I will bring against them,

Against the mother of the young men,

A plunderer at noonday;

I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them suddenly.

⁹“She languishes who has borne seven;

She has breathed her last;

Her sun has gone down

While it was yet day;

She has been ashamed and confounded.

And the remnant of them I will deliver to the sword

Before their enemies,” says the LORD.

Jeremiah’s Dejection

¹⁰Woe is me, my mother,

That you have borne me,

A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth!

I have neither lent for interest,

Nor have men lent to me for interest.

Every one of them curses me.

¹¹The LORD said:

“Surely it will be well with your remnant;

Surely I will cause the enemy to intercede with you

In the time of adversity and in the time of affliction.

¹²Can anyone break iron,

The northern iron and the bronze?

¹³Your wealth and your treasures

I will give as plunder without price,

Because of all your sins,

Throughout your territories.

¹⁴And I will make you cross over with^a your enemies

Into a land which you do not know;

For a fire is kindled in My anger,

Which shall burn upon you.”

¹⁵O LORD, You know;

Remember me and visit me,

And take vengeance for me on my persecutors.

In Your enduring patience, do not take me away.

Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke.

¹⁶Your words were found, and I ate them,

And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;

For I am called by Your name,

O LORD God of hosts.

¹⁷I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers,

Nor did I 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 surely be to me like an unreliable stream,

As waters that fail?

The LORD Reassures Jeremiah

¹⁹Therefore thus says the LORD:

“If you return,

Then I will bring you back;

You shall stand before Me;

If you take out the precious from the vile,

You shall be as My mouth.

Let them return to you,

But you must not return to them.

²⁰And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall;

And they will fight against you,

But they shall not prevail against you;

For I am with you to save you

And deliver you,” says the LORD.

²¹“I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked,

And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.”

Jeremiah 16

Jeremiah’s Life-Style and Message

¹The word of the LORD also came to me, saying, ²“You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.” ³For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them and their fathers who begot them in this land: ⁴“They shall die gruesome deaths; they shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried, butthey shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.”

⁵For thus says the LORD: “Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people,” says the LORD, “lovingkindness and mercies.⁶Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; neither shall men lament for them, cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them. ⁷Nor shall men break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their mother. ⁸Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.”

⁹For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

¹⁰“And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has theLORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’ ¹¹then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the LORD; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. ¹²And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me.¹³Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’

God Will Restore Israel

¹⁴“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that it shall no more be said, ‘TheLORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ ¹⁵but, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.

¹⁶“Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the LORD, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. ¹⁷For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes. ¹⁸And first I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols.”

¹⁹O LORD, my strength and my fortress,

My refuge in the day of affliction,

The Gentiles shall come to You

From the ends of the earth and say,

“Surely our fathers have inherited lies,

Worthlessness and unprofitable things.”

²⁰Will a man make gods for himself,

Which are not gods?

²¹“Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know,

I will cause them to know

My hand and My might;

And they shall know that My name is the LORD.

Jeremiah 17

Judah’s Sin and Punishment

¹“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron;

With the point of a diamond it is engraved

On the tablet of their heart,

And on the horns of your altars,

²While their children remember

Their altars and their wooden images^a

By the green trees on the high hills.

³O My mountain in the field,

I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures,

And your high places of sin within all your borders.

⁴And you, even yourself,

Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you;

And I will cause you to serve your enemies

In the land which you do not know;

For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.”

⁵Thus says the LORD:

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man

And makes flesh his strength,

Whose heart departs from the LORD.

⁶For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,

And shall not see when good comes,

But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,

In a salt land which is not inhabited.

⁷“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,

And whose hope is the LORD.

⁸For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,

Which spreads out its roots by the river,

And will not fear^a when heat comes;

But its leaf will be green,

And will not be anxious in the year of drought,

Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

⁹“The heart is deceitful above all things,

And desperately wicked;

Who can know it?

¹⁰I, the LORD, search the heart,

I test the mind,

Even to give every man according to his ways,

According to the fruit of his doings.

¹¹“As a partridge that broods but does not hatch,

So is he who gets riches, but not by right;

It will leave him in the midst of his days,

And at his end he will be a fool.”

¹²A glorious high throne from the beginning

Is the place of our sanctuary.

¹³O LORD, the hope of Israel,

All who forsake You shall be ashamed.

“Those who depart from Me

Shall be written in the earth,

Because they have forsaken the LORD,

The fountain of living waters.”

Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance

¹⁴Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed;

Save me, and I shall be saved,

For You are my praise.

¹⁵Indeed they say to me,

“Where is the word of the LORD?

Let it come now!”

¹⁶As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You,

Nor have I desired the woeful day;

You know what came out of my lips;

It was right there before You.

¹⁷Do not be a terror to me;

You are my hope in the day of doom.

¹⁸Let them be ashamed who persecute me,

But do not let me be put to shame;

Let them be dismayed,

But do not let me be dismayed.

Bring on them the day of doom,

And destroy them with double destruction!

Hallow the Sabbath Day

¹⁹Thus the LORD said to me: “Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; ²⁰and say to them, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. ²¹Thus says the LORD: “Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; ²²nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. ²³But they did not obey nor incline their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction.

²⁴“And it shall be, if you heed Me carefully,” says the LORD, “to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it, ²⁵then shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. ²⁶And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the lowland, from the mountains and from the South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, bringing sacrifices of praise to the house of the LORD.

²⁷“But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.” ’ ”

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