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. Before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you. I
have appointed you a prophet to the nations." {1:6} Then I said, "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 do you see? I said, I see a
rod of an almond tree. {1:12} Then said Yahweh to me, You have seen
well: for I watch over my word to perform it. {1:13} The word of
Yahweh came to me the second time, saying, What do you see? 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 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
I will contend with your children's children. {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 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 bowed yourself, playing the prostitute. {2:21} Yet I had
planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then have 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 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, Judah. {2:29}
Why will you contend with me? You all have transgressed against me,
says Yahweh. {2:30} I have struck your children in vain. 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 well you prepare your way
to seek love! Therefore you have taught even the wicked women your
ways. {2:34} Also the blood of the souls of the innocent poor is found
in your skirts. 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 do you go about so
much to change your way? You will 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 puts away his wife, and she goes 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 would 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 you
have 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 have 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.
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