Jeremiah, starting at chapter 13
{13:1} Thus says Yahweh to me, Go, and buy you a linen belt, and put
it on your loins, and don't put it in water. {13:2} So I bought a belt
according to the word of Yahweh, and put it on my loins. {13:3} The
word of Yahweh came to me the second time, saying, {13:4} Take the
belt that you have bought, which is on your loins, and arise, go to
the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock. {13:5} So I
went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as Yahweh commanded me. {13:6} It
happened after many days, that Yahweh said to me, Arise, go to the
Euphrates, and take the belt from there, which I commanded you to hide
there. {13:7} Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the belt
from the place where I had hid it; and, behold, the belt was marred,
it was profitable for nothing. {13:8} Then the word of Yahweh came to
me, saying, {13:9} Thus says Yahweh, After this manner will I mar the
pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. {13:10} This evil
people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of
their heart, and are gone after other gods to serve them, and to
worship them, shall even be as this belt, which is profitable for
nothing. {13:11} For as the belt cleaves to the loins of a man, so
have I caused to cleave to me the whole house of Israel and the whole
house of Judah, says Yahweh; that they may be to me for a people, and
for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not
hear. {13:12} Therefore you shall speak to them this word: Thus says
Yahweh, the God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and
they shall tell you, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall
be filled with wine? {13:13} Then shall you tell them, Thus says
Yahweh, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the
kings who sit on David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets,
and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. {13:14} I will
dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together,
says Yahweh: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have compassion, that I
should not destroy them. {13:15} Hear you, and give ear; don't be
proud; for Yahweh has spoken. {13:16} Give glory to Yahweh your God,
before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark
mountains, and, while you look for light, he turn it into the shadow
of death, and make it gross darkness. {13:17} But if you will not hear
it, my soul shall weep in secret for [your] pride; and my eye shall
weep sore, and run down with tears, because Yahweh's flock is taken
captive. {13:18} Say you to the king and to the queen-mother, Humble
yourselves, sit down; for your headdresses are come down, even the
crown of your glory. {13:19} The cities of the South are shut up, and
there is none to open them: Judah is carried away captive, all of it;
it is wholly carried away captive. {13:20} Lift up your eyes, and see
those who come from the north: where is the flock that was given you,
your beautiful flock? {13:21} What will you say, when he shall set
over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to
you? shall not sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail?
{13:22} If you say in your heart, Why are these things come on me? for
the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts uncovered, and your
heels suffer violence. {13:23} Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or
the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, who are accustomed
to do evil. {13:24} Therefore will I scatter them, as the stubble that
passes away, by the wind of the wilderness. {13:25} This is your lot,
the portion measured to you from me, says Yahweh; because you have
forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood. {13:26} Therefore will I also
uncover your skirts on your face, and your shame shall appear. {13:27}
I 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
shall it yet be?
{14:1} The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah concerning the
drought. {14:2} Judah mourns, and the gates of it languish, they sit
in black on the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. {14:3}
Their 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. {14:4}
Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in
the land, the plowmen are disappointed, they cover their heads. {14:5}
Yes, the hind also in the field calves, and forsakes [her young],
because there is no grass. {14:6} The wild donkeys stand on the bare
heights, they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail, because
there is no herbage. {14:7} Though our iniquities testify against us,
work you for your name's sake, Yahweh; for our backslidings are many;
we have sinned against you. {14:8} You hope of Israel, the Savior of
it 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?
{14:9} Why should you be like a scared man, as a mighty man who can't
save? yet you, Yahweh, are in the midst of us, and we are called by
your name; don't leave us. {14:10} Thus says Yahweh to this people,
Even so have they loved to wander; they have not refrained their feet:
therefore Yahweh does not accept them; now will he remember their
iniquity, and visit their sins. {14:11} Yahweh said to me, Don't pray
for this people for [their] good. {14:12} When 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, and by
the famine, and by the pestilence. {14:13} Then said I, Ah, Lord
Yahweh! behold, the prophets tell them, You shall not see the sword,
neither shall you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in
this place. {14:14} Then Yahweh said to me, The prophets prophesy lies
in my name; I didn't send them, neither have I commanded them, neither
spoke I to them: they prophesy to you a lying vision, and divination,
and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart. {14:15}
Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who prophesy in my
name, and I didn't send them, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not
be in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
{14:16} The people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the
streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they
shall have none to bury them-them, their wives, nor their sons, nor
their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness on them. {14:17} 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. {14:18} If I
go forth into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! and
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. {14:19} 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! {14:20} We acknowledge, Yahweh, our wickedness,
and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against you.
{14:21} Do not abhor [us], for your name's sake; do not disgrace the
throne of your glory: remember, don't break your covenant with us.
{14:22} Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause
rain? or can the sky give showers? Aren't you he, Yahweh our God?
therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things.
{15:1} Then said Yahweh to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before
me, yet my mind would not be toward this people: cast them out of my
sight, and let them go forth. {15:2} It shall happen, when they tell
you, Where shall we go forth? then you shall tell them, Thus says
Yahweh: 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 captivity, to captivity. {15:3} I will appoint
over them four kinds, says Yahweh: the sword to kill, and the dogs to
tear, and the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to
devour and to destroy. {15:4} I 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.
{15:5} For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? or who will bemoan
you? or who will turn aside to ask of your welfare? {15:6} You have
rejected me, says Yahweh, you are gone backward: therefore have I
stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed you; I am weary with
repenting. {15:7} I 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. {15:8} Their widows are increased
to me above 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. {15:9} She who has borne seven
languishes; she has given up the spirit; her sun is gone down while it
was yet day; she has been disappointed and confounded: and the residue
of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, says Yahweh.
{15:10} 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] everyone of them does curse me. {15:11}
Yahweh said, Most assuredly I will strengthen you for good; most
assuredly I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you in the
time of evil and in the time of affliction. {15:12} Can one break
iron, even iron from the north, and brass? {15:13} Your substance and
your treasures will I give for a spoil without price, and that for all
your sins, even in all your borders. {15:14} I 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 shall burn on you. {15:15} Yahweh, you
know; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors;
don't take me away in your longsuffering: know that for your sake I
have suffered reproach. {15:16} Your words were found, and I ate them;
and your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I
am called by your name, Yahweh, God of Armies. {15:17} I didn't sit in
the assembly of those who make merry, nor rejoiced; I sat alone
because of your hand; for you have filled me with indignation. {15:18}
Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be
healed? will you indeed be to me as a deceitful [brook], as waters
that fail? {15:19} Therefore thus says Yahweh, If you return, then
will I bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take
forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: they shall
return to you, but you shall not return to them. {15:20} I will make
you to this people a fortified brazen wall; and they shall fight
against you, but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you
to save you and to deliver you, says Yahweh. {15:21} I will deliver
you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the
hand of the terrible.
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