Jeremiah 4:19-31

New King James Version

Sorrow for the Doomed Nation

¹⁹O my ^(A)soul, my soul!
I am pained in my very heart!
My heart makes a noise in me;
I cannot hold my peace,
Because you have heard, O my soul,
The sound of the trumpet,
The alarm of war.
²⁰^(B)Destruction upon destruction is cried,
For the whole land is plundered.
Suddenly ^(C)my tents are plundered,
And my curtains in a moment.
²¹How long will I see the ^[a]standard,
And hear the sound of the trumpet?

²²“For My people are foolish,
They have not known Me.
They are ^[b]silly children,
And they have no understanding.
^(D)They are wise to do evil,
But to do good they have no knowledge.”

²³^(E)I beheld the earth, and indeed it was ^(F)without form, and void;
And the heavens, they had no light.
²⁴^(G)I beheld the mountains, and indeed they trembled,
And all the hills moved back and forth.
²⁵I beheld, and indeed there was no man,
And ^(H)all the birds of the heavens had fled.
²⁶I beheld, and indeed the fruitful land was a ^(I)wilderness,
And all its cities were broken down
At the presence of the Lord,
By His fierce anger.

²⁷For thus says the Lord:

“The whole land shall be desolate;
^(J)Yet I will not make a full end.
²⁸For this ^(K)shall the earth mourn,
And ^(L)the heavens above be black,
Because I have spoken.
I have ^(M)purposed and ^(N)will not relent,
Nor will I turn back from it.
²⁹The whole city shall flee from the noise of the horsemen and bowmen.
They shall go into thickets and climb up on the rocks.
Every city shall be forsaken,
And not a man shall dwell in it.

³⁰“And when you are plundered,
What will you do?
Though you clothe yourself with crimson,
Though you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,
^(O)Though you enlarge your eyes with paint,
In vain you will make yourself fair;
^(P)Your lovers will despise you;
They will seek your life.

³¹“For I have heard a voice as of a woman in ^[c]labor,
The anguish as of her who brings forth her first child,
The voice of the daughter of Zion bewailing herself;
She ^(Q)spreads her hands, saying,
‘Woe is me now, for my soul is ^[d]weary
Because of murderers!’