Jeremiah, starting at chapter 1
{1:1} The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who
were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: {1:2} to whom the word of
Yahweh came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in
the thirteenth year of his reign. {1:3} It came also in the days of
Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the end of the eleventh
year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the carrying
away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month. {1:4} Now the word of
Yahweh came to me, saying, {1:5} Before I formed you in the belly I
knew you, and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you;
I have appointed you a prophet to the nations. {1:6} Then said I, Ah,
Lord Yahweh! behold, I don't know how to speak; for I am a child.
{1:7} But Yahweh said to me, Don't say, I am a child; for to whoever I
shall send you, you shall go, and whatever I shall command you, you
shall speak. {1:8} Don't be afraid because of them; for I am with you
to deliver you, says Yahweh. {1:9} Then Yahweh put forth his hand, and
touched my mouth; and Yahweh said to me, Behold, I have put my words
in your mouth: {1:10} behold, I have this day set you over the nations
and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy
and to overthrow, to build and to plant. {1:11} Moreover the word of
Yahweh came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what see you? I said, I see a rod
of an almond tree. {1:12} Then said Yahweh to me, You have well seen:
for I watch over my word to perform it. {1:13} The word of Yahweh came
to me the second time, saying, What see you? I said, I see a boiling
caldron; and its face is from the north. {1:14} Then Yahweh said to
me, Out of the north evil shall break forth on all the inhabitants of
the land. {1:15} For, behold, I will call all the families of the
kingdoms of the north, says Yahweh; and they shall come, and they
shall set everyone his throne at the entrance of the gates of
Jerusalem, and against all its walls all around, and against all the
cities of Judah. {1:16} I will utter my judgments against them
touching all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have
burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own
hands. {1:17} You therefore gird up your waist, and arise, and speak
to them all that I command you: don't be dismayed at them, lest I
dismay you before them. {1:18} For, 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. {1:19} They shall
fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you: for I am
with you, says Yahweh, to deliver you.
{2:1} The word of Yahweh came to me, saying, {2:2} Go, and cry in
the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Yahweh, I remember for you
the kindness of your youth, the love of your weddings; how you went
after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. {2:3} Israel
[was] holiness to Yahweh, the first fruits of his increase: all who
devour him shall be held guilty; evil shall come on them, says Yahweh.
{2:4} Hear you the word of Yahweh, O house of Jacob, and all the
families of the house of Israel: {2:5} thus says Yahweh, What
unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far
from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain? {2:6}
Neither said they, Where is Yahweh who brought us up out of the land
of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts
and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death,
through a land that none passed through, and where no man lived? {2:7}
I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat its fruit and its
goodness; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my
heritage an abomination. {2:8} The priests didn't say, Where is
Yahweh? and those who handle the law didn't know me: the rulers also
transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and
walked after things that do not profit. {2:9} Therefore I will yet
contend with you, says Yahweh, and with your children's children will
I contend. {2:10} For pass over to the islands of Kittim, and see; and
send to Kedar, and consider diligently; and see if there has been such
a thing. {2:11} Has a nation changed [its] gods, which yet are no
gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which does not
profit. {2:12} Be astonished, you heavens, at this, and be horribly
afraid, be you very desolate, says Yahweh. {2:13} For my people have
committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living
waters, and cut them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no
water. {2:14} Is Israel a servant? is he a native-born [slave]? why is
he become a prey? {2:15} The young lions have roared on him, and
yelled; and they have made his land waste: his cities are burned up,
without inhabitant. {2:16} The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes
have broken the crown of your head. {2:17} Haven't you procured this
to yourself, in that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, when he led
you by the way? {2:18} Now what have you to do in the way to Egypt, to
drink the waters of the Shihor? or what have you to do in the way to
Assyria, to drink the waters of the River? {2:19} Your own wickedness
shall correct you, and your backsliding shall reprove you: know
therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that you have
forsaken Yahweh your God, and that my fear is not in you, says the
Lord, Yahweh of Armies. {2:20} For of old time I have broken your
yoke, and burst your bonds; and you said, I will not serve; for on
every high hill and under every green tree you did bow yourself,
playing the prostitute. {2:21} Yet I had planted you a noble vine,
wholly a right seed: how then are you turned into the degenerate
branches of a foreign vine to me? {2:22} For though you wash yourself
with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me,
says the Lord Yahweh. {2:23} How can you say, I am not defiled, I have
not gone after the Baals? see your way in the valley, know what you
have done: [you are] a swift dromedary traversing her ways; {2:24} a
wild donkey used to the wilderness, that snuffs up the wind in her
desire; in her occasion who can turn her away? all those who seek her
will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her. {2:25}
Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst: but
you said, It is in vain; no, for I have loved strangers, and after
them will I go. {2:26} As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is
the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and
their priests, and their prophets; {2:27} who tell a stock, You are my
father; and to a stone, You have brought me forth: 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. {2:28} But where are your
gods that you have made you? 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, Judah. {2:29} Why will you contend with me? you all
have transgressed against me, says Yahweh. {2:30} In vain have I
struck your children; they received no correction: your own sword has
devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. {2:31} Generation, see
the word of Yahweh. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? or a land of
thick darkness? why say my people, We are broken loose; we will come
no more to you? {2:32} Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride
her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
{2:33} How trimmest you your way to seek love! therefore even the
wicked women have you taught your ways. {2:34} Also in your skirts is
found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor: you did not find
them breaking in; but it is because of all these things. {2:35} Yet
you said, I am innocent; surely his anger is turned away from me.
Behold, I will enter into judgment with you, because you say, I have
not sinned. {2:36} Why go you about so much to change your way? you
shall be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria. {2:37}
From there also you shall go forth, with your hands on your head: for
Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust, and you shall not prosper
with them.
{3:1} They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him,
and become another man's, will he return to her again? Won't that land
be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many
lovers; yet return again to me, says Yahweh. {3:2} Lift up your eyes
to the bare heights, and see; where have you not been lain with? By
the ways have you sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and
you have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your
wickedness. {3:3} Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there
has been no latter rain; yet you have a prostitute's forehead, you
refused to be ashamed. {3:4} Will you not from this time cry to me, My
Father, you are the guide of my youth? {3:5} Will he retain [his
anger] forever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken
and have done evil things, and have had your way. {3:6} Moreover
Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen that
which backsliding Israel has done? she is gone up on every high
mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the
prostitute. {3:7} I said after she had done all these things, She will
return to me; but she didn't return: and her treacherous sister Judah
saw it. {3:8} I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel
had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of
divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, didn't fear; but she also
went and played the prostitute. {3:9} It happened through the
lightness of her prostitution, that the land was polluted, and she
committed adultery with stones and with stocks. {3:10} Yet for all
this her treacherous sister Judah has not returned to me with her
whole heart, but only in pretense, says Yahweh. {3:11} Yahweh said to
me, Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than
treacherous Judah. {3:12} Go, and proclaim these words toward the
north, and say, Return, you backsliding Israel, says Yahweh; I will
not look in anger on you; for I am merciful, says Yahweh, I will not
keep [anger] forever. {3:13} Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you
have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your
ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed
my voice, says Yahweh. {3:14} Return, backsliding children, says
Yahweh; for I am a husband to you: and I will take you one of a city,
and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: {3:15} and I will
give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with
knowledge and understanding. {3:16} It shall come to pass, when you
are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says Yahweh,
they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of Yahweh; neither
shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall
they miss it; neither shall it be made any more. {3:17} At that time
they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Yahweh; and all the nations
shall be gathered to it, to the name of Yahweh, to Jerusalem: neither
shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
{3:18} 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 gave for an inheritance to your fathers. {3:19} But I
said, How I will put you among the children, and give you a pleasant
land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations! and I said, You
shall call me My Father, and shall not turn away from following me.
{3:20} Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so
have you dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel, says Yahweh.
{3:21} A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping [and] the
petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their
way, they have forgotten Yahweh their God. {3:22} Return, you
backsliding children, I will heal your backsliding. Behold, we are
come to you; for you are Yahweh our God. {3:23} Truly in vain is [the
help that is looked for] from the hills, the tumult on the mountains:
truly in Yahweh our God is the salvation of Israel. {3:24} But the
shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth,
their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. {3:25}
Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we
have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth
even to this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God.
___
This Bible reading mailing list and web site are paid for by donations
marked "World English Bible project" and payable to:
Rainbow Missions
PO BOX 275
MESA CO 81643-0275
To help support the senior editor, please see http://eBible.org/mpj/
To cancel your free email subscription, please send
email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
unsubscribe bible
in the body of the message OR go to http://ebible.org/subscribe.htm
