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
[1>]Yahweh[<1] 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, [2>]Lord[<2] 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 branch 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 it is tipping away from the
north."
{1:14} Then Yahweh said to me, "Out of the north evil will break out
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 each set 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 will
fight against you; but they will 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 did they say, '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 really 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 has he become a
prey? {2:15} The young lions have roared at him, and yelled. 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 [3>]God[<3], 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. When she is
in heat, who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not weary
themselves. In her month, they will 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 I will go after them.' {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 wood,
'You are my father;' and a stone, 'You have brought me out:' 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, consider the word of Yahweh. Have
I been a wilderness to Israel? Or a land of thick darkness? Why do my
people say, 'We have broken loose. We will come to you no more?'
{2:32} "Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?
Yet my people have forgotten me for 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 has turned
away from me.'
"Behold, I will judge 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?' Wouldn'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? You have sat for them by the ways, as an
Arabian in the wilderness. 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 has 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. I will take you
one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
{3:15} 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 the salvation of Israel is in Yahweh
our God. {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. We have not obeyed the
voice of Yahweh our God."
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Footnotes:
[1] {1:2} "Yahweh" is God's proper Name, sometimes rendered "LORD" (all
caps) in other translations.
[2] {1:6} The word translated "Lord" is "Adonai."
[3] {2:17} The Hebrew word rendered "God" is "Elohim."
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