Yirmeyahu, starting at chapter 4
{4:1} If you will return, Yisra'el, says the LORD, if you will
return to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my
sight; then you shall not be removed; {4:2} and you shall swear, As
the LORD lives, in truth, in justice, and in righteousness; and the
nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
{4:3} For thus says the LORD to the men of Yehudah and to
Yerushalayim, Break up your fallow ground, and don't sow among thorns.
{4:4} Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins
of your heart, you men of Yehudah and inhabitants of Yerushalayim;
lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it,
because of the evil of your doings. {4:5} Declare you in Yehudah, and
publish in Yerushalayim; and say, Blow you the [1>]shofar[<1] in the
land: cry aloud and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the
fortified cities. {4:6} Set up a standard toward Tziyon: flee for
safety, don't stay; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great
destruction. {4:7} A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer
of nations; he is on his way, he is gone forth from his place, to make
your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without
inhabitant. {4:8} For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail;
for the fierce anger of the LORD hasn't turned back from us. {4:9} It
shall happen at that day, says the LORD, that the heart of the king
shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the [2>]Kohanim[<2]
shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder. {4:10} Then said
I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely you have greatly deceived this people and
Yerushalayim, saying, You shall have shalom; whereas the sword reaches
to the life. {4:11} At that time shall it be said to this people and
to Yerushalayim, A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness
toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse;
{4:12} a full wind from these shall come for me: now will I also utter
judgments against them. {4:13} Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and
his chariots [shall be] as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than
eagles. Woe to us! for we are ruined. {4:14} Yerushalayim, wash your
heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil
thoughts lodge within you? {4:15} For a voice declares from Dan, and
publishes evil from the hills of Efrayim: {4:16} make you mention to
the nations; behold, publish against Yerushalayim, [that] watchers
come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities
of Yehudah. {4:17} As keepers of a field are they against her round
about, because she has been rebellious against me, says the LORD.
{4:18} Your way and your doings have procured these things to you;
this is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to your
heart. {4:19} My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my
heart is disquieted in me; I can't hold my shalom; because you have
heard, O my soul, the sound of the [3>]shofar[<3], the alarm of war.
{4:20} Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid
waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, [and] my curtains in a moment.
{4:21} How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the
[4>]shofar[<4]? {4:22} For my people are foolish, they don't know me;
they are foolish children, and they have no understanding; they are
wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. {4:23} I saw
the [5>]eretz[<5], and, behold, it was waste and void; and the
heavens, and they had no light. {4:24} I saw the mountains, and,
behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth. {4:25}
I saw, and, behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky
were fled. {4:26} I saw, and, behold, the fruitful field was a
wilderness, and all the cities of it were broken down at the presence
of the LORD, [and] before his fierce anger. {4:27} For thus says the
LORD, The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full
end. {4:28} For this shall the [6>]eretz[<6] mourn, and the heavens
above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I
have not repented, neither will I turn back from it. {4:29} Every city
flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers; they go into the
thickets, and climb up on the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a
man dwells therein. {4:30} You, when you are made desolate, what will
you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck you
with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in
vain do you make yourself beautiful; [your] lovers despise you, they
seek your life. {4:31} For I have heard a voice as of a woman in
travail, the anguish as of her who brings forth her first child, the
voice of the daughter of Tziyon, who gasps for breath, who spreads her
hands, [saying], Woe is me now! for my soul faints before the
murderers.
{5:1} Run you back and forth through the streets of Yerushalayim,
and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places of it, if you can
find a man, if there are any who does justly, who seeks truth; and I
will pardon her. {5:2} Though they say, As the LORD lives; surely they
swear falsely. {5:3} O LORD, don't your eyes look on truth? you have
stricken them, but they were not grieved; you have consumed them, but
they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces
harder than a rock; they have refused to return. {5:4} Then I said,
Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they don't know the way
of the LORD, nor the law of their God: {5:5} I will get me to the
great men, and will speak to them; for they know the way of the LORD,
and the law of their God. But these with one accord have broken the
yoke, and burst the bonds. {5:6} Therefore a lion out of the forest
shall kill them, a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them, a leopard
shall watch against their cities; everyone who goes out there shall be
torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, [and] their
backsliding is increased. {5:7} How can I pardon you? your children
have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed
them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in
troops at the prostitutes' houses. {5:8} They were as fed horses
roaming at large; everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife. {5:9}
Shall I not visit for these things? says the LORD; and shall not my
soul be avenged on such a nation as this? {5:10} Go up on her walls,
and destroy; but don't make a full end: take away her branches; for
they are not the LORD's. {5:11} For the house of Yisra'el and the
house of Yehudah have dealt very treacherously against me, says the
LORD. {5:12} They have denied the LORD, and said, It is not he;
neither shall evil come on us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
{5:13} and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in
them: thus shall it be done to them. {5:14} Therefore thus says the
LORD, the God [1>]Tzva'ot[<1],, Because you speak this word, behold, I
will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it
shall devour them. {5:15} Behold, I will bring a nation on you from
far, house of Yisra'el, says the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an
ancient nation, a nation whose language you don't know, neither
understand what they say. {5:16} Their quiver is an open tomb, they
are all mighty men. {5:17} They shall eat up your harvest, and your
bread, [which] your sons and your daughters should eat; they shall eat
up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your
fig trees; they shall beat down your fortified cities, in which you
trust, with the sword. {5:18} But even in those days, says the LORD, I
will not make a full end with you. {5:19} It shall happen, when you
shall say, Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us? then
shall you say to them, Like as you have forsaken me, and served
foreign gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that
is not yours. {5:20} Declare you this in the house of Ya`akov, and
publish it in Yehudah, saying, {5:21} Hear now this, foolish people,
and without understanding; who have eyes, and don't see; who have
ears, and don't hear: {5:22} Don't you fear me? says the LORD: won't
you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of
the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it can't pass it? and though the
waves of it toss themselves, yet they can't prevail; though they roar,
yet they can't pass over it. {5:23} But this people has a revolting
and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. {5:24} Neither say
they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, who gives rain,
both the former and the latter, in its season; who preserves to us the
appointed weeks of the harvest. {5:25} Your iniquities have turned
away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you. {5:26}
For among my people are found wicked men: they watch, as fowlers lie
in wait; they set a trap, they catch men. {5:27} As a cage is full of
birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become
great, and grew rich. {5:28} They are grew fat, they shine: yes, they
overpass in deeds of wickedness; they don't plead the cause, the cause
of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and the right of the needy
they don't judge. {5:29} Shall I not visit for these things? says the
LORD; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? {5:30} A
wonderful and horrible thing is happen in the land: {5:31} the
prophets prophesy falsely, and the [2>]Kohanim[<2] bear rule by their
means; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the
end of it?
{6:1} Flee for safety, you children of Binyamin, out of the midst
of Yerushalayim, and blow the [1>]shofar[<1] in Tekoa, and raise up a
signal on Beit-Hakkerem; for evil looks forth from the north, and a
great destruction. {6:2} The comely and delicate one, the daughter of
Tziyon, will I cut off. {6:3} Shepherds with their flocks shall come
to her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they
shall feed everyone in his place. {6:4} Prepare you war against her;
arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us! for the day declines, for
the shadows of the evening are stretched out. {6:5} Arise, and let us
go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces. {6:6} For thus has the
LORD of Hosts said, Hew you down trees, and cast up a mound against
Yerushalayim: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression
in the midst of her. {6:7} As a well casts forth its waters, so she
casts forth her wickedness: violence and destruction is heard in her;
before me continually is sickness and wounds. {6:8} Be instructed,
Yerushalayim, lest my soul be alienated from you; lest I make you a
desolation, a land not inhabited. {6:9} Thus says the LORD of Hosts,
They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Yisra'el as a vine: turn
again your hand as a grape-gatherer into the baskets. {6:10} To whom
shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? behold, their ear is
uncircumcised, and they can't listen: behold, the word of the LORD is
become to them a reproach; they have no delight in it. {6:11}
Therefore I am full of the wrath of the LORD; I am weary with holding
in: pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of
young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken,
the aged with him who is full of days. {6:12} Their houses shall be
turned to others, their fields and their wives together; for I will
stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD.
{6:13} For from the least of them even to the greatest of them
everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the
[2>]Kohen[<2] everyone deals falsely. {6:14} They have healed also the
hurt of my people slightly, saying, Shalom, shalom; when there is no
shalom. {6:15} Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?
nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore
they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I visit them
they shall be cast down, says the LORD. {6:16} Thus says the LORD,
Stand you in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the
good way; and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls:
but they said, We will not walk [therein]. {6:17} I set watchmen over
you, [saying], Listen to the sound of the [3>]shofar[<3]; but they
said, We will not listen. {6:18} Therefore hear, you nations, and
know, congregation, what is among them. {6:19} Hear, [4>]eretz[<4]:
behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their
thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for my
law, they have rejected it. {6:20} To what purpose comes there to me
frankincense from Sheva, and the sweet cane from a far country? your
burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to
me. {6:21} Therefore thus says the LORD, Behold, I will lay
stumbling-blocks before this people; and the fathers and the sons
together shall stumble against them; the neighbor and his friend shall
perish. {6:22} Thus says the LORD, Behold, a people comes from the
north country; and a great nation shall be stirred up from the
uttermost parts of the [5>]eretz[<5]. {6:23} They lay hold on bow and
spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the
sea, and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the
battle, against you, daughter of Tziyon. {6:24} We have heard the
report of it; our hands wax feeble: anguish has taken hold of us,
[and] pangs as of a woman in travail. {6:25} Don't go forth into the
field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy, [and] terror,
are on every side. {6:26} Daughter of my people, gird you with
sackcloth, and wallow yourself in ashes: make you mourning, as for an
only son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly
come on us. {6:27} I have made you a tester of metals [and] a fortress
among my people; that you may know and try their way. {6:28} They are
all grievous rebels, going about with slanders; they are brass and
iron: they all of them deal corruptly. {6:29} The bellows blow
fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on
refining; for the wicked are not plucked away. {6:30} Refuse silver
shall men them, because the LORD has rejected them.
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Footnotes:
[1] {4:5} trumpet
[2] {4:9} priests
[3] {4:19} trumpet
[4] {4:21} trumpet
[5] {4:23} earth
[6] {4:28} earth
[1] {5:14} of hosts or of armies
[2] {5:31} priests
[1] {6:1} trumpet
[2] {6:13} priest
[3] {6:17} trumpet
[4] {6:19} earth
[5] {6:22} earth
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