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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>]the LORD[<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 the LORD 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] the LORD! Behold, I don't know how to speak;
for I am a child."
{1:7} But the LORD 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 the LORD. {1:9} Then the LORD put forth
his hand, and touched my mouth; and the LORD 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 the LORD came to me, saying, "Jeremiah, what do
you see?"
I said, "I see a branch of an almond tree."
{1:12} Then the LORD said to me, "You have seen well; for I watch
over my word to perform it."
{1:13} The word of the LORD 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 the LORD 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 the LORD;
"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 put your belt on your waist, 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 the LORD, "to deliver you."
{2:1} The word of the LORD came to me, saying, {2:2} "Go, and cry in
the ears of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the LORD, "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 the LORD, the first fruits of his increase. All
who devour him shall be held guilty. Evil shall come on them,"' says
the LORD."
{2:4} Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the
families of the house of Israel! {2:5} Thus says the LORD, "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 the LORD 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
the LORD?' 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 the LORD, "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 the LORD. {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 the LORD 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 the LORD your God, and that my fear
is not in you," says the Lord, the LORD of Hosts. {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 GOD.
{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 the LORD.
{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 the LORD.
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 the
LORD 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 the LORD.
{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, the LORD 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 the
LORD.
{3:11} The LORD 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 the LORD; 'I will not look in anger on you; for I am merciful,'
says the LORD. 'I will not keep anger forever. {3:13} Only acknowledge
your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the LORD your God,
and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree,
and you have not obeyed my voice,' says the LORD." {3:14} "Return,
backsliding children," says the LORD; "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 the LORD, "they shall say no more, 'The ark of the
covenant of the LORD!' 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
the LORD;' and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of
the LORD, 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 the LORD.
{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 the LORD their God. {3:22} Return, you
backsliding children, I will heal your backsliding.
"Behold, we have come to you; for you are the LORD our God. {3:23}
Truly in vain is help from the hills, the tumult on the mountains.
Truly the salvation of Israel is in the LORD 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 the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our
youth even to this day. We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our
God."
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Footnotes:
[1] {1:2} "LORD" or "GOD" (all capital letters) indicate the 4-letter
Holy Name of God
[2] {1:6} The word translated "Lord" (mixed case) is "Adonai."
[3] {2:17} The Hebrew word rendered "God" is "Elohim."
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