Jeremiah 3-4

New American Standard Bible

The Defiled Land

3 God ^[a]says, “^(A)If a husband divorces his wife
And she leaves him
And becomes another man’s wife,
Will he return to her again?
Would that land not be completely defiled?
But you ^(B)are a prostitute with many ^[b]lovers;
Yet you ^(C)turn to Me,” declares the Lord.
²“Raise your eyes to the ^(D)bare heights and see;
Where have you not been violated?
You have ^(E)sat for them by the roads
Like an Arab in the desert,
And you have ^(F)defiled a land
With your prostitution and your wickedness.
³Therefore the ^(G)showers have been withheld,
And there has been no spring rain.
Yet you had a ^(H)prostitute’s ^[c]forehead;
You refused to be ashamed.
⁴Have you not just now called to Me,
‘^(I)My Father, You are the ^(J)friend of my ^(K)youth?
⁵^(L)Will He be angry forever,
Or keep His anger to the end?’
Behold, you have spoken
And have done evil things,
And you have ^[d]had your own way.”

Faithless Israel

⁶Then the Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She ^(M)went up on every high hill and under every leafy tree, and she prostituted herself there. ⁷Yet ^(N)I ^[e]thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her ^(O)treacherous sister Judah saw it. ⁸And I saw that for all the ^[f]adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and ^(P)given her a certificate of divorce, yet her ^(Q)treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and prostituted herself also. ⁹And because of the thoughtlessness of her prostitution, she ^(R)defiled the land and committed ^[g]adultery with ^(S)stones and trees. ¹⁰Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in ^(T)deception,” declares the Lord.

God Invites Repentance

¹¹And the Lord said to me, “^(U)Faithless Israel has proved herself to be more righteous than treacherous Judah. ¹²Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say,

‘^(V)Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord;
‘^(W)I will not ^[h]look at you in anger.
For I am ^(X)gracious,’ declares the Lord;
‘I will not be angry forever.
¹³Only ^[i]^(Y)acknowledge your wrongdoing,
That you have revolted against the Lord your God,
And have ^(Z)scattered your ^[j]favors to the strangers ^(AA)under every leafy tree,
And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the Lord.
¹⁴‘Return, you faithless sons,’ declares the Lord;
‘For I am a ^(AB)master to you,
And I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
And ^(AC)bring you to Zion.’

¹⁵“Then I will give you ^(AD)shepherds ^[k]after My own heart, who will ^(AE)feed you knowledge and understanding. ¹⁶And it shall be in those days when you become numerous and are fruitful in the land,” declares the Lord, “they will ^(AF)no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor miss it, nor will it be made again. ¹⁷At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The ^(AG)Throne of the Lord,’ and ^(AH)all the nations will assemble at it, at Jerusalem, for the ^(AI)name of the Lord; and they will no longer ^(AJ)follow the stubbornness of their evil heart. ¹⁸^(AK)In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together ^(AL)from the land of the north to the ^(AM)land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.

¹⁹“Then I said,

‘How I would set you among ^[l]My sons
And give you a pleasant land,
The most ^(AN)beautiful inheritance of the nations!’
And I said, ‘You shall call Me, ^(AO)My Father,
And not turn away from following Me.’
²⁰However, as a woman treacherously leaves her lover,
So you have ^(AP)dealt treacherously with Me,
House of Israel,” declares the Lord.

²¹A voice is heard on the ^(AQ)bare heights,
The weeping, the pleading of the sons of Israel.
Because they have perverted their way,
They have ^(AR)forgotten the Lord their God.
²²“Return, you faithless sons,
^(AS)I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to You;
For You are the Lord our God.
²³Certainly ^(AT)the hills are a deception,
^[m]Commotion on the mountains.
Certainly in the ^(AU)Lord our God
Is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴“But ^(AV)the shame has consumed the product of our fathers’ labor since our youth—their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. ²⁵Let us lie down in our ^(AW)shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, ^(AX)from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

Judah Threatened with Invasion

4 “If you will ^(AY)return, Israel,” declares the Lord,
“Then you should return to Me.
And ^(AZ)if you will put away your detestable things from My presence,
And will not waver,
²And if you will ^(BA)swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’
^(BB)In truth, in justice, and in righteousness;
Then the ^(BC)nations will bless themselves in Him,
And ^(BD)in Him they will boast.”

³For this is what the Lord says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem:

“^[n]^(BE)Break up your uncultivated ground,
And ^(BF)do not sow among thorns.
⁴^(BG)Circumcise yourselves to the Lord
And remove the foreskins of your hearts,
Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
Or else My ^(BH)wrath will spread like fire
And burn with ^(BI)no one to quench it,
Because of the evil of your deeds.”

⁵Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say,
“^(BJ)Blow the trumpet in the land;
Cry aloud and say,
‘^(BK)Assemble, and let’s go
Into the fortified cities.’
⁶Raise a ^(BL)flag toward Zion!
Take refuge, do not stand still,
For I am bringing ^(BM)evil from the north,
And great destruction.
⁷A ^(BN)lion has gone up from his thicket,
And a ^(BO)destroyer of nations has set out;
He has gone out from his place
To ^(BP)make your land a waste.
Your cities will be ruins,
Without an inhabitant.
⁸For this, ^(BQ)put on sackcloth,
Mourn and wail;
For the ^(BR)fierce anger of the Lord
Has not turned away from us.”

⁹“And it shall come about on that day,” declares the Lord, “that the ^(BS)heart of the king and the hearts of the leaders will fail; and the priests will tremble, and the ^(BT)prophets will be astonished.”

¹⁰Then I said, “Oh, Lord ^[o]God! Surely You have utterly ^(BU)deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘^(BV)You will have peace’; yet a sword touches the ^[p]throat.”

¹¹At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A ^(BW)scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness, in the direction of the daughter of My people—not to winnow and not to cleanse, ¹²a wind too ^[q]strong for ^[r]this—will come ^[s]at My command; now I will also pronounce judgments against them.”

¹³“Behold, he ^(BX)goes up like clouds,
And his ^(BY)chariots like the whirlwind;
His horses are ^(BZ)swifter than eagles.
Woe to us, for ^(CA)we are ruined!”

¹⁴Wash your heart from evil, Jerusalem,
So that you may be saved.
How long will your ^(CB)wicked thoughts
Lodge within you?
¹⁵For a voice declares from ^(CC)Dan,
And proclaims wickedness from Mount Ephraim.
¹⁶“Report it to the nations, now!
Proclaim to Jerusalem,
‘^[t]Enemies are coming from a ^(CD)remote country,
And ^(CE)they raise their voices against the cities of Judah.
¹⁷Like watchmen of a field they are ^(CF)against her all around,
Because she has ^(CG)rebelled against Me,’ declares the Lord.
¹⁸Your ^(CH)ways and your deeds
Have ^[u]brought these things upon you.
This is your evil. How ^(CI)bitter!
How it has touched your heart!”

Grief over Judah’s Devastation

¹⁹^(CJ)My ^[v]soul, my ^[w]soul! I am in anguish! ^[x]Oh, my heart!
My ^(CK)heart is pounding in me;
I cannot keep silent,
Because, ^[y]my soul, you have heard
The ^(CL)sound of the trumpet,
The alarm of war.
²⁰^(CM)Disaster upon disaster is proclaimed,
For the ^(CN)whole land is devastated;
Suddenly my ^(CO)tents are devastated,
And my curtains in an instant.
²¹How long must I see the flag
And hear the sound of the trumpet?
²²“^(CP)For My people are foolish,
They do not know Me;
They are foolish children
And have no understanding.
They are skillful at ^(CQ)doing evil,
But they do not know how to do good.”

²³I looked at the earth, and behold, it was a ^[z]^(CR)formless and desolate emptiness;
And to the heavens, and they had no light.
²⁴I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were ^(CS)quaking,
And all the hills jolted back and forth.
²⁵I looked, and behold, there was no human,
And all the ^(CT)birds of the sky had fled.
²⁶I looked, and behold, ^[aa]the ^(CU)fruitful land was a wilderness,
And all its cities were pulled down
Before the Lord, before His fierce anger.

²⁷For this is what the Lord says:
“The ^(CV)whole land shall be a desolation,
Yet I will ^(CW)not execute a complete destruction.
²⁸For this the ^(CX)earth will mourn,
And the ^(CY)heavens above will become dark,
Because I have ^(CZ)spoken, I have purposed,
And I have not ^[ab]changed My mind, nor will I turn from it.”
²⁹At the sound of the horseman and archer ^(DA)every city flees;
They ^(DB)go into the thickets and climb among the rocks;
^(DC)Every city is abandoned,
And no one lives in them.
³⁰And you, desolate one, ^(DD)what will you do?
Although you dress in scarlet,
Although you adorn yourself with jewelry of gold,
Although you ^(DE)enlarge your eyes with makeup,
In vain you make yourself beautiful.
Your ^[ac]^(DF)lovers despise you;
They seek your life.
³¹For I heard a voice cry as of a woman in labor,
The anguish as of one giving birth to her first child.
The voice of the daughter of Zion ^(DG)gasping for breath,
^(DH)Stretching out her ^[ad]hands, saying,
“Ah, woe to me, for ^[ae]I faint before murderers.”