Jeremiah 5: 1 - 6: 30
| 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 neighbour’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 amongst 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? |
| 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 wholly 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 amongst 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 amongst 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 neighbour 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 labour. 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 amongst 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.” |
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