Jeremiah 9:17-11

English Standard Version

¹⁷Thus says the Lord of hosts:
^(A)“Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;
    send for the skillful women to come;
¹⁸let them make haste ^(B)and raise a wailing over us,
    ^(C)that our eyes may run down with tears
    and our eyelids flow with water.
¹⁹For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion:
    ^(D)‘How we are ruined!
    We are utterly shamed,
because we have left the land,
    because they have cast down our dwellings.’”

²⁰Hear, O women, the word of the Lord,
    and let your ear receive the word of his mouth;
teach to your daughters a lament,
    and each to her neighbor a dirge.
²¹For death has come up into our windows;
    it has entered our palaces,
^(E)cutting off the children from the streets
    and the young men from the squares.
²²Speak: “Thus declares the Lord,
^(F)‘The dead bodies of men shall fall
    like dung upon the open field,
^(G)like sheaves after the reaper,
    and none shall gather them.’”

²³Thus says the Lord: ^(H)“Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, ²⁴but ^(I)let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. ^(J)For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

²⁵“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when ^(K)I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh— ²⁶^(L)Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and ^(M)all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are ^(N)uncircumcised in heart.”

Idols and the Living God

10 Hear the word that the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. ²Thus says the Lord:

“Learn not the way of the nations,
    nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens
    because the nations are dismayed at them,
³^(O)for the customs of the peoples are vanity.^[a]
^(P)A tree from the forest is cut down
    and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.
⁴^(Q)They decorate it with silver and gold;
    ^(R)they fasten it with hammer and nails
    so that it cannot move.
⁵Their idols^[b] are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,
    and ^(S)they cannot speak;
^(T)they have to be carried,
    for they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them,
    ^(U)for they cannot do evil,
    neither is it in them to do good.”

⁶^(V)There is none like you, O Lord;
    you are great, and your name is great in might.
⁷^(W)Who would not fear you, O King of the nations?
    For this is your due;
for among all the wise ones of the nations
    and in all their kingdoms
    there is none like you.
⁸^(X)They are both ^(Y)stupid and foolish;
    the instruction of idols is but wood!
⁹^(Z)Beaten silver is brought from ^(AA)Tarshish,
    and gold from ^(AB)Uphaz.
^(AC)They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith;
    their clothing is violet and purple;
    ^(AD)they are all the work of skilled men.
¹⁰^(AE)But the Lord is the true God;
    ^(AF)he is the living God and the everlasting King.
At his wrath the earth quakes,
    and the nations cannot endure his indignation.

¹¹Thus shall you say to them: ^(AG)“The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth ^(AH)shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.”^[c]

¹²^(AI)It is he who ^(AJ)made the earth by his power,
    ^(AK)who established the world by his wisdom,
    and ^(AL)by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
¹³^(AM)When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
    ^(AN)and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.
^(AO)He makes lightning ^(AP)for the rain,
    ^(AQ)and he brings forth the wind ^(AR)from his storehouses.
¹⁴^(AS)Every man is stupid and without knowledge;
    ^(AT)every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols,
for his images are false,
    ^(AU)and there is no breath in them.
¹⁵They are worthless, a work of delusion;
    at the time of their punishment they shall perish.
¹⁶Not like these is he who is ^(AV)the portion of Jacob,
    for he is the one who formed all things,
^(AW)and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance;
    ^(AX)the Lord of hosts is his name.

¹⁷^(AY)Gather up your bundle from the ground,
    O you who dwell under siege!
¹⁸For thus says the Lord:
^(AZ)“Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land
    at this time,
^(BA)and I will bring distress on them,
    that they may feel it.”

¹⁹Woe is me because of my hurt!
    ^(BB)My wound is grievous.
But I said, “Truly this is an affliction,
    and I must bear it.”
²⁰^(BC)My tent is destroyed,
    and all my cords are broken;
my children have gone from me,
    ^(BD)and they are not;
there is no one to spread my tent again
    and ^(BE)to set up my curtains.
²¹^(BF)For the shepherds ^(BG)are stupid
    and do not inquire of the Lord;
therefore they have not prospered,
    ^(BH)and all their flock is scattered.

²²A voice, a rumor! Behold, it comes!—
^(BI)a great commotion out of the north country
to make ^(BJ)the cities of Judah a desolation,
^(BK)a lair of jackals.

²³^(BL)I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself,
that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
²⁴^(BM)Correct me, O Lord, but in justice;
not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.

²⁵^(BN)Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not,
    and on the peoples that call not on your name,
^(BO)for they have devoured Jacob;
    they have devoured him and consumed him,
    and have laid waste his habitation.

The Broken Covenant

11 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²^(BP)“Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ³You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ^(BQ)Cursed be the man who does not hear the words of this covenant ⁴that I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, ^(BR)from the iron furnace, saying, ^(BS)Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. ^(BT)So shall you be my people, and I will be your God, ⁵^(BU)that I may confirm the oath that I swore to your fathers, ^(BV)to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day.” Then I answered, “So be it, Lord.”

⁶And the Lord said to me, ^(BW)“Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ^(BX)Hear the words of this covenant and do them. ⁷For I solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, ^(BY)warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, ^(BZ)Obey my voice. ⁸^(CA)Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, ^(CB)but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all ^(CC)the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.”

⁹Again the Lord said to me, ^(CD)“A conspiracy exists among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁰They have turned back to ^(CE)the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. ^(CF)They have gone after other gods to serve them. ^(CG)The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers. ¹¹Therefore, thus says the Lord, Behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape. ^(CH)Though they cry to me, I will not listen to them. ¹²Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem ^(CI)will go and cry to the gods to whom they make offerings, ^(CJ)but they cannot save them in the time of their trouble. ¹³^(CK)For your gods have become as many as your cities, O Judah, and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to shame, ^(CL)altars to make offerings to Baal.

¹⁴“Therefore ^(CM)do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, ^(CN)for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble. ¹⁵^(CO)What right has my beloved in my house, ^(CP)when she has done many vile deeds? Can even sacrificial flesh avert your doom? ^(CQ)Can you then exult? ¹⁶The Lord once called you ^(CR)‘a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit.’ But ^(CS)with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and ^(CT)its branches will be consumed. ¹⁷The Lord of hosts, ^(CU)who planted you, has decreed disaster against you, because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, ^(CV)provoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal.”