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Jeremiah 5
Run to and fro through the streets Of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places of it, if you can find a man, if there is any that does justly, that seeks truth; and I will pardon her. 2 And though they say, As Yahweh lives; surely they swear falsely. 3 O Yahweh, do not your eyes look upon truth? You have struck 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.
4 Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they know not the way of Yahweh, nor the law of their Elohim: 5 I will go up for myself to the great men, and will speak to them; for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their Elohim. But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. 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; every one that goes out from there shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
7 How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no elohim: when I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the harlots’ houses. 8 They were as fed horses roaming at large; every one neighed after his neighbor’s wife. 9 Shall I not visit for these things? says Yahweh; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10 Go up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her branches; for they are not Yahweh’s. 11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, says Yahweh. 12 They have denied Yahweh, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: 13 and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done to them.
14 Therefore thus says Yahweh, the Elohim of hosts, Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. 15 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, says Yahweh: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you know not, neither understand what they say. 16 Their quiver is an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. 17 And 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. 18 But even in those days, says Yahweh, I will not make a full end with you.
19 And it shall come to pass, when you shall say, Why has Yahweh our Elohim done all these things to us? Then shall you say to them, Like as you have forsaken me, and served foreign elohim in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
20 Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, 21 Hear this now, O foolish people, and without understanding; that have eyes, and see not; that have ears, and hear not: 22 Do you not fear me? says Yahweh: will you not tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it? And though the waves of it toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it. 23 But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they have revolted and gone. 24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear Yahweh our Elohim, that gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; that preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest. 25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you. 26 For among my people are found wicked men: they watch, as fowlers lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men. 27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they have become great, and grown rich. 28 They have become fat, they shine: yes, they exceed in deeds of wickedness; they plead not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. 29 Shall I not visit for these things? says Yahweh; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
30 A wonderful and horrible thing has come to pass in the land: 31 the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end of it?
Jeremiah 6
Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the middle of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise up a signal on Beth-haccherem; for evil looks forth from the north, and a great destruction. 2 The comely and delicate one, the daughter of Zion, will I cut off. 3 Shepherds with their flocks shall come to her; they shall pitch their tents against her all around; they shall feed every one in his place. 4 Prepare 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. 5 Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces. 6 For thus has Yahweh of hosts said, Hew down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the middle of her. 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. 8 Be instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from you; lest I make you a desolation, a land not inhabited.
9 In this manner says Yahweh of hosts, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn again your hand as a grape-gatherer into the baskets. 10 To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot listen: behold, the word of Yahweh has become to them a reproach; they have no delight in it. 11 Therefore I am full of the wrath of Yahweh; I am weary with holding in: pour it out upon the children in the street, and upon the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days. 12 And their houses shall be turned to others, their fields and their wives together; for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, says Yahweh. 13 For from the least of them even to the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest every one deals falsely. 14 They have healed also the hurt of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. 15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall; at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.
16 In this manner says Yahweh, Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk in it, and you shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk in it. 17 And I set watchmen over you, saying, Listen to the sound of the trumpet; but they said, We will not listen. 18 Therefore hear, you nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. 19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon 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. 20 To what purpose comes there to me frankincense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me. 21 Therefore thus says Yahweh, 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.
22 In this manner says Yahweh, Behold, a people comes from the north country; and a great nation shall be stirred up from the utmost parts of the earth. 23 They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses, every one set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, O daughter of Zion. 24 We have heard the report of it; our hands become feeble: anguish has taken hold of us, and pangs as of a woman in travail. 25 Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy, and terror, are on every side. 26 O daughter of my people, gird yourself with sackcloth, and wallow yourself in ashes: make mourning for yourself, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us.
27 I have made you a trier and a fortress among my people; that you may know and try their way. 28 They are all grievous revolters, going about with slanders; they are bronze and iron: they all of them deal corruptly. 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. 30 Refuse silver shall men call them, because Yahweh has rejected them.
Jeremiah 7
The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, 2 Stand in the gate of Yahweh’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, hear the word of Yahweh, all you of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship Yahweh. 3 In this manner says Yahweh of hosts, the Elohim of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4 Trust not in lying words, saying, The temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, are these. 5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; 6 if you oppress not the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other elohim to your own hurt: 7 then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even for evermore.
8 Behold, you trust in lying words, that cannot profit. 9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other elohim that you have not known, 10 and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered; that you may do all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says Yahweh.
12 But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these works, says Yahweh, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you heard not; and I called you, but you answered not: 14 therefore will I do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
16 Therefore pray not for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear you. 17 See you not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to other elohim, that they may provoke me to anger. 19 Do they provoke me to anger? says Yahweh; Do they not provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces? 20 Therefore thus says the Sovereign Yahweh: Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
21 In this manner says Yahweh of hosts, the Elohim of Israel: Add your burnt-offerings to your sacrifices, and eat flesh. 22 For I spoke not to your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices: 23 but this thing I commanded them, saying, Listen to my voice, and I will be your Elohim, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you. 24 But they listened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. 25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: 26 yet they listened not to me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers.
27 And you shall speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will not answer you. 28 And you shall say to them, This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of Yahweh their Elohim, nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
29 Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. 30 For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, says Yahweh: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. 31 And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded not, neither came it into my mind. 32 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, till there is no place to bury. 33 And the dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth; and no one shall frighten them away. 34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bride-groom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.
Jeremiah 8
At that time, says Yahweh, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves; 2 and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. 3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them, says Yahweh of hosts.
4 Moreover you shall say to them, In this manner says Yahweh: Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return? 5 Why then has this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. 6 I listened and heard, but they spoke not aright: no man repented of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Every one turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle. 7 Also, the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times; and the turtledove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the law of Yahweh.
8 How do you say, We are wise, and the law of Yahweh is with us? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely. 9 The wise men are put to shame, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of Yahweh; and what manner of wisdom is in them? 10 Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to them that shall possess them: for every one from the least even to the great is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest every one deals falsely. 11 And they have heated the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. 12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.
13 I will utterly consume them, says Yahweh: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them. 14 Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there; for Yahweh our Elohim has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh. 15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and, behold, dismay! 16 The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles; for they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those that dwell in it. 17 For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, says Yahweh.
18 Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! My heart is faint within me. 19 Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: Is not Yahweh in Zion? Is not her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images, and with foreign vanities? 20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. 21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay has taken hold on me. 22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
