“Shepherds with their flocks will come against her; They will pitch their tents all around her; They will pasture, each one in his place [eating up all her rich grasses].

“They seize bow and spear; They are cruel and inhuman and have no mercy. Their voice sounds like the roaring sea; They ride [in formation] on horses, Arrayed as a man for battle Against you, O Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem)!”

For if you thoroughly change your ways and your behavior, if you thoroughly and honestly practice justice between a man and his neighbor,

Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and [the fire will] not be quenched.”

And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth and no one will frighten them away.

“Moreover [Jeremiah], you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Do men fall and not rise up again? Does one turn away [from God] and not repent and return [to Him]?

“I have listened and heard, But they have spoken what is not right; No man repented of his wickedness, Saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turns to his [individual] course, As the horse rushes like a torrent into battle.

“The wise men are shamed, They are dismayed and caught. Behold, they have [manipulated and] rejected the [truth in the] word of the Lord, And what kind of wisdom and insight do they have?

Why are we sitting still [the people wonder]? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter the fortified cities And let us die there, For the Lord our God has decreed our ruin And given us bitter and poisonous water to drink, Because we have sinned against the Lord.

“Their tongue is a murderous arrow; It speaks deceit; With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, But in his heart he lays traps and waits in ambush for him.

“I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, And a [funeral] dirge for the pastures of the wilderness, Because they are burned up and desolated so that no one passes through [them]; Nor can anyone hear the lowing of cattle. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they are gone.

Who is the wise man who may understand this [without any doubt]? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, so that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?

Now hear the word of the Lord, O you women, And let your ear hear the word of His mouth; Teach your daughters a song of mourning, And each one [teach] her neighbor a dirge.

Speak, “Thus says the Lord, ‘The dead bodies of men will fall like dung on the open field, And like sheaves [of grain] behind the reaper, And no one will gather them.’”

Thus says the Lord, “Let not the one who is wise and skillful boast in his insight; let not the one who is mighty and powerful boast in his strength; let not the one who is rich boast in his [temporal satisfactions and earthly] abundance;

but let the one who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me [and acknowledges Me and honors Me as God and recognizes without any doubt], that I am the Lord who practices lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on the earth, for in these things I delight,” says the Lord.

For the customs and decrees of the peoples are [mere] delusion [exercises in futility]; It is only wood which one cuts from the forest [to make a god], The work of the hands of the craftsman with the axe or cutting tool.

In this manner you shall say to them, “The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.”

Every man has become [like a brute] irrational and stupid, without knowledge [of God]; Every goldsmith is shamed by his carved idols; For his molten images are frauds and lies, And there is no breath in them.

My tent is destroyed, And all my [tent] cords are broken; My children have been taken from me [as captives] and are no more. There is no one to stretch out my tent again And to set up my [tent] curtains.

O Lord, I know that the path of [life of] a man is not in himself; It is not within [the limited ability of] man [even one at his best] to choose and direct his steps [in life].

Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “Cursed is the man who does not heed the words of this covenant

Then the cities of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry to the [man-made] gods to whom they burn incense, but they cannot save them in the time of their disaster.

For [as many as] the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah; and [as many as] the number of the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to the shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal.

“What right has My beloved [to be] in My house When she has done many vile things and acted treacherously [over and over again]? Can vows and the meat of your sacrifices remove your wickedness from you and cancel the consequences of your sin, So that you can [escape your judgment and] rejoice?”