Yirmeyahu, starting at chapter 1
{1:1} The words of Yirmeyahu the son of Hilkiyah, of the
[1>]Kohanim[<1] who were in `Anatot in the land of Binyamin: {1:2} to
whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Yoshiyahu the son of
Amon, king of Yehudah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. {1:3} It
came also in the days of Yehoiakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of
Yehudah, to the end of the eleventh year of Tzidkiyahu, the son of
Yoshiyahu, king of Yehudah, to the carrying away of Yerushalayim
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, 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 GOD! 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, Yirmeyahu, what see you? I said, I see a rod of an
almond tree. {1:12} Then said the LORD to me, You have well seen: for
I watch over my word to perform it. {1:13} The word of the LORD came
to me the second time, saying, What see you? I said, I see a boiling
caldron; and the face of it is from the north. {1:14} Then the LORD
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 the LORD; and they shall
come, and they shall set everyone his throne at the entrance of the
gates of Yerushalayim, and against all the walls of it round about,
and against all the cities of Yehudah. {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 loins,
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 brazen
walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Yehudah, against
the princes of it, against the [2>]Kohanim[<2] of it, 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 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 Yerushalayim, 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}
Yisra'el [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 you the word of the LORD, O house of Ya`akov, and
all the families of the house of Yisra'el: {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 said they, Where is the LORD who brought us up out of
the land of Mitzrayim, 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 the fruit
of it and the goodness of it; but when you entered, you defiled my
land, and made my heritage an abomination. {2:8} The [1>]Kohanim[<1]
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 Ba`al, and walked after things that do not profit. {2:9}
Therefore I will yet contend with you, says the LORD, and with your
children's children will I contend. {2:10} For pass over to the isles
of Kittiyim, 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 the LORD.
{2:13} For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me,
the spring of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken
cisterns, that can hold no water. {2:14} Is Yisra'el a servant? is he
a home-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
Mof and Tachpanches have broken the crown of your head. {2:17} Haven't
you procured this to yourself, in that you have forsaken the LORD your
God, when he led you by the way? {2:18} Now what have you to do in the
way to Mitzrayim, to drink the waters of the Shichor? or what have you
to do in the way to Ashshur, 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 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 GOD. {2:23} How can you say, I am not defiled, I have
not gone after the Ba`alim? 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 Yisra'el ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and
their [2>]Kohanim[<2], 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, Yehudah. {2:29} Why will you contend with me?
you all have transgressed against me, says the LORD. {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 the LORD. Have I been a wilderness to
Yisra'el? 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 Mitzrayim also, as you were ashamed of
Ashshur. {2:37} From there also shall you 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 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 the LORD. {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 `Aravian 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 the
LORD said to me in the days of Yoshiyahu the king, Have you seen that
which backsliding Yisra'el 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
Yehudah saw it. {3:8} I saw, when, for this very cause that
backsliding Yisra'el had committed adultery, I had put her away and
given her a bill of divorce, yet treacherous Yehudah, 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 Yehudah has not
returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense, says the
LORD. {3:11} The LORD said to me, Backsliding Yisra'el has shown
herself more righteous than treacherous Yehudah. {3:12} Go, and
proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, you
backsliding Yisra'el, 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: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a
family, and I will bring you to Tziyon: {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 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 Yerushalayim the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be
gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Yerushalayim: neither
shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
{3:18} In those days the house of Yehudah shall walk with the house of
Yisra'el, 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 hosts 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 Yisra'el, says the
LORD. {3:21} A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping [and]
the petitions of the children of Yisra'el; 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 are
come to you; for you are the LORD our God. {3:23} Truly in vain is
[the help that is looked for] from the hills, the tumult on the
mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Yisra'el.
{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; and we have not obeyed the
voice of the LORD our God.
________________________________________________________________________
Footnotes:
[1] {1:1} priests
[2] {1:18} priests
[1] {2:8} priests
[2] {2:26} priests
________________________________________________________________________
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