Jeremiah 4:19-6:15

English Standard Version

Anguish over Judah's Desolation

¹⁹^(A)My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain!
    Oh the walls of my heart!
My heart is beating wildly;
    I cannot keep silent,
for I hear the sound of the trumpet,
    the alarm of war.
²⁰^(B)Crash follows hard on crash;
    the whole land is laid waste.
^(C)Suddenly my tents are laid waste,
    my curtains in a moment.
²¹How long must I see the standard
    and hear the sound of the trumpet?

²²“For ^(D)my people are foolish;
    they know me not;
they are stupid children;
    they have no understanding.
^(E)They are ‘wise’—in doing evil!
    But how to do good they know not.”

²³I looked on the earth, and behold, it was ^(F)without form and void;
    ^(G)and to the heavens, and they had no light.
²⁴I looked on ^(H)the mountains, and behold, they were quaking,
    and all the hills moved to and fro.
²⁵^(I)I looked, and behold, there was no man,
    and all the birds of the air had fled.
²⁶I looked, and behold, the ^(J)fruitful land was a desert,
    and all its cities were laid in ruins
    before the Lord, before ^(K)his fierce anger.

²⁷For thus says the Lord, “The whole land shall be a desolation; ^(L)yet I will not make a full end.

²⁸^(M)“For this the earth shall mourn,
^(N)and the heavens above be dark;
for I have spoken; I have purposed;
^(O)I have not relented, nor will I turn back.”

²⁹At the noise of horseman and archer
    every city takes to flight;
they enter thickets; they climb among rocks;
    all the cities are forsaken,
    and ^(P)no man dwells in them.
³⁰And you, O desolate one,
what do you mean that you dress in scarlet,
    ^(Q)that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,
    ^(R)that you enlarge your eyes with paint?
In vain you beautify yourself.
    ^(S)Your lovers despise you;
    they seek your life.
³¹For I heard ^(T)a cry as of a woman in labor,
    anguish as of one giving birth to her first child,
the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,
    ^(U)stretching out her hands,
“Woe is me! I am fainting before murderers.”

Jerusalem Refused to Repent

5 ^(V)Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
    look and take note!
Search her squares to see
    ^(W)if you can find a man,
one who does justice
    and seeks truth,
^(X)that I may pardon her.
²^(Y)Though they say, “As the Lord lives,”
    ^(Z)yet they swear falsely.
³O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?
^(AA)You have struck them down,
    but they felt no anguish;
you have consumed them,
    but they refused to take correction.
^(AB)They have made their faces harder than rock;
    they have refused to repent.

⁴Then I said, “These are only the poor;
    they have no sense;
^(AC)for they do not know the way of the Lord,
    the justice of their God.
⁵I will go to the great
    and will speak to them,
for they know the way of the Lord,
    the justice of their God.”
^(AD)But they all alike had broken the yoke;
    they had burst the bonds.

⁶Therefore ^(AE)a lion from the forest shall strike them down;
    a ^(AF)wolf from the desert shall devastate them.
^(AG)A leopard is watching their cities;
    everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,
because their transgressions are many,
    their ^(AH)apostasies are great.

⁷^(AI)“How can I pardon you?
    Your children have forsaken me
    ^(AJ)and have sworn by those who are no gods.
^(AK)When I fed them to the full,
    ^(AL)they committed adultery
    ^(AM)and trooped to the houses of whores.
⁸They were well-fed, lusty stallions,
    ^(AN)each neighing ^(AO)for his neighbor's wife.
⁹^(AP)Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the Lord;
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?

¹⁰^(AQ)“Go up through her vine rows and destroy,
    ^(AR)but make not a full end;
strip away her branches,
    for they are not the Lord's.
¹¹^(AS)For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
    have been utterly treacherous to me,
declares the Lord.
¹²They have spoken falsely of the Lord
    and have said, ‘He will do nothing;
^(AT)no disaster will come upon us,
    ^(AU)nor shall we see sword or famine.
¹³The prophets will become wind;
    the word is not in them.
Thus shall it be done to them!’”

The Lord Proclaims Judgment

¹⁴Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts:
“Because you have spoken this word,
behold, ^(AV)I am making my words in your mouth ^(AW)a fire,
    and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.
¹⁵^(AX)Behold, I am bringing against you
    a nation from afar, O house of Israel,
declares the Lord.
It is an enduring nation;
    it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know,
    ^(AY)nor can you understand what they say.
¹⁶^(AZ)Their quiver is like ^(BA)an open tomb;
    they are all mighty warriors.
¹⁷^(BB)They shall eat up your harvest and your food;
    they shall eat up your sons and your daughters;
they shall eat up your flocks and your herds;
    they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;
your ^(BC)fortified cities in which you trust
    they shall beat down with the sword.”

¹⁸“But even in those days, declares the Lord, ^(BD)I will not make a full end of you. ¹⁹And when your people say, ^(BE)‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, ^(BF)so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’”

²⁰Declare this in the house of Jacob;
    proclaim it in Judah:
²¹“Hear this, ^(BG)O foolish and senseless people,
    ^(BH)who have eyes, but see not,
    who have ears, but hear not.
²²^(BI)Do you not fear me? declares the Lord.
    Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand ^(BJ)as the boundary for the sea,
    a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
    though ^(BK)they roar, they cannot pass over it.
²³^(BL)But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
    they have turned aside and gone away.
²⁴They do not say in their hearts,
    ‘Let us fear the Lord our God,
^(BM)who gives the rain in its season,
    the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
    ^(BN)the weeks appointed for the harvest.’
²⁵^(BO)Your iniquities have turned these away,
    and your sins have kept good from you.
²⁶For wicked men are found among my people;
    ^(BP)they lurk like fowlers lying in wait.^[a]
^(BQ)They set a trap;
    they catch men.
²⁷Like a cage full of birds,
    their houses are full of deceit;
therefore they have become great and rich;
²⁸    ^(BR)they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of evil;
    ^(BS)they judge not with justice
the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,
    and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
²⁹^(BT)Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the Lord,
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?”

³⁰An appalling and ^(BU)horrible thing
    has happened in the land:
³¹^(BV)the prophets prophesy falsely,
    and the priests rule at their direction;
^(BW)my people love to have it so,
    but what will you do when the end comes?

Impending Disaster for Jerusalem

6 Flee for safety, ^(BX)O people of Benjamin,
    from the midst of Jerusalem!
Blow the trumpet in ^(BY)Tekoa,
    and raise a signal on ^(BZ)Beth-haccherem,
for disaster looms ^(CA)out of the north,
    and great destruction.
²The lovely and delicately bred I will destroy,
    ^(CB)the daughter of Zion.^[b]
³^(CC)Shepherds with their flocks shall come against her;
    ^(CD)they shall pitch their tents around her;
    they shall pasture, each in his place.
⁴^(CE)“Prepare war against her;
    arise, and let us attack ^(CF)at noon!
Woe to us, for the day declines,
    for the shadows of evening lengthen!
⁵Arise, and let us attack by night
    and destroy her palaces!”

⁶For thus says the Lord of hosts:
^(CG)“Cut down her trees;
    ^(CH)cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem.
This is the city that must be ^(CI)punished;
    there is nothing but oppression within her.
⁷^(CJ)As a well keeps its water fresh,
    so she keeps fresh her evil;
^(CK)violence and destruction are heard within her;
    sickness and wounds are ever before me.
⁸Be warned, O Jerusalem,
    ^(CL)lest I turn from you in disgust,
lest I make you ^(CM)a desolation,
    an uninhabited land.”

⁹Thus says the Lord of hosts:
^(CN)“They shall glean thoroughly as a vine
    the remnant of Israel;
like a grape gatherer pass your hand again
    over its branches.”
¹⁰^(CO)To whom shall I speak and give warning,
    that they may hear?
^(CP)Behold, their ears are uncircumcised,
    ^(CQ)they cannot listen;
behold, ^(CR)the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn;
    they take no pleasure in it.
¹¹Therefore I am full of the wrath of the Lord;
    ^(CS)I am weary of holding it in.
^(CT)“Pour it out upon the children in the street,
    and upon the gatherings of young men, also;
^(CU)both husband and wife ^(CV)shall be taken,
    the elderly and the very aged.
¹²^(CW)Their houses shall be turned over to others,
    their fields and wives together,
for I will stretch out my hand
    against the inhabitants of the land,”
declares the Lord.
¹³^(CX)“For from the least to the greatest of them,
    everyone ^(CY)is greedy for unjust gain;
and from ^(CZ)prophet to priest,
    everyone deals falsely.
¹⁴They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
    saying, ^(DA)‘Peace, peace,’
    ^(DB)when there is no peace.
¹⁵^(DC)Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
    No, they were not at all ashamed;
    they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
    ^(DD)at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,”
says the Lord.