Jeremiah 9-10
Complete Jewish Bible
9 (2) I wish I were out in the desert,
in some travelers’ lodge —
then I could get away from my people
and distance myself from them!
“Indeed they are all adulterers,
a band of traitors is what they are.
2 (3) They bend their tongues, their ‘bow’ of falsehood,
and hold sway in the land, but not for truth.
For they go from evil to evil,
and me they do not know,”
says Adonai.
3 (4) Everyone, be on guard against your neighbor,
don’t trust even a brother;
for every brother is out to trick you,
and every neighbor goes around gossiping.
4 (5) Everyone deceives his neighbor,
no one speaks the truth;
they have taught their tongues to lie,
they wear themselves out with sinning.
5 (6) “You inhabit a world of deceit;
deceitfully they refuse to know me,”
says Adonai.
6 (7) “Therefore,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot,
“I will refine them and test them.
What else can I do with the daughter of my people?
7 (8) Their tongues are sharpened arrows;
with their mouths they speak deceit —
they say nice words to their neighbors,
while inwardly plotting against them.
8 (9) Should I not punish them for these things?” asks Adonai.
“Should I not take vengeance on such a nation?”
9 (10) I weep and wail for the mountains
and lament over the desert pastures,
because they have been burned up;
no one passes through;
they no longer hear the sound of cattle;
the birds and wild animals have fled, are gone.
10 (11) “I will make Yerushalayim a heap of ruins,
turn it into a lair for jackals,
and make the cities of Y’hudah desolate,
with no one living there.”
11 (12) Who is wise enough to understand this?
To whom has the mouth of Adonai spoken,
so that he can proclaim it?
Why has the land perished
and been laid waste like a desert,
so that no one passes through?
12 (13) Adonai answers:
“Because they abandoned my Torah,
which I set before them,
and neither listened to what I said
nor lived accordingly,
13 (14) but have lived by their own hearts’ stubbornness
and by the ba‘alim, as their ancestors taught them —
14 (15) therefore,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot,
the God of Isra’el:
“I will feed this people bitter wormwood
and give them poisonous water to drink.
15 (16) I will scatter them among nations
that neither they nor their ancestors have known.
I will send the sword after them
until I have wiped them out.”
16 (17) Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot:
“Mark this, then summon the mourning women,
so that they will come;
send for those who are best [at mourning],
so that they will come:
17 (18) ‘Have them hurry and wail for us,
so our eyes will be wet from crying,
and our eyelids gush with tears.’
18 (19) For the sound of wailing is heard from Tziyon:
‘We are utterly ruined,
we are completely ashamed,
because we have left the land,
and our homes have been torn down!’”
19 (20) You women, hear the word of Adonai!
Let your ears receive the words from his mouth.
Teach your daughters how to wail,
have each teach her friend how to lament:
20 (21) “Death has come up through our windows,
it has entered our palaces,
it has cut down children in the streets
and young people in the public places.”
21 (22) Say: “Here is what Adonai says:
‘The corpses of people are scattered
like dung in an open field,
like sheaves left behind by the reaper
with no one to gather them.’”
22 (23) Here is what Adonai says:
“The wise man should not boast of his wisdom,
the powerful should not boast of his power,
the wealthy should not boast of his wealth;
23 (24) instead, let the boaster boast about this:
that he understands and knows me —
that I am Adonai, practicing grace,
justice and righteousness in the land;
for in these things I take pleasure,” says Adonai.
24 (25) “The days are coming,” says Adonai, “when I will punish all those who have been circumcised in their uncircumcision — 25 (26) Egypt, Y’hudah, Edom, the people of ‘Amon and Mo’av, and all those living in the desert who cut the edges [of their beard]:
“For although all the Goyim are uncircumcised,
all the house of Isra’el have uncircumcised hearts.”
10 Hear the word Adonai speaks to you,
house of Isra’el!
2 Here is what Adonai says:
“Don’t learn the way of the Goyim,
don’t be frightened by astrological signs,
even if the Goyim are afraid of them;
3 for the customs of the peoples are nothing.
They cut down a tree in the forest;
a craftsman works it with his axe;
4 they deck it with silver and gold.
They fix it with hammer and nails,
so that it won’t move.
5 Like a scarecrow in a cucumber patch,
it cannot speak.
It has to be carried,
because it cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of it —
it can do nothing bad;
likewise it is unable
to do anything good!”
6 There is no one like you, Adonai!
You are great, and your name is great and mighty.
7 Who would not fear you, king of the nations?
For it is your due! —
since among all the wise of the nations
and among all their royalty,
there is no one like you.
8 One and all they are boorish and stupid;
the teaching of their nothings is a piece of wood!
9 Silver is beaten into plates,
then imported from Tarshish.
Gold from Ufaz is worked by a craftsman
and shaped by the hands of a goldsmith.
They are clothed in blue and purple,
all the work of skillful men.
10 But Adonai, God, is the true God,
the living God, the everlasting king.
At his anger, the earth trembles;
the nations cannot endure his fury.
11 “This is what you must say to them:
‘The gods that did not make heaven and earth
will perish from earth and from under heaven.’”
12 God made the earth by his power,
established the world by his wisdom
spread out the sky by his understanding.
13 When he thunders, the waters in heaven roar,
he raises clouds from the ends of the earth,
he makes the lightning flash in the rain
and brings the wind out from his storehouses.
14 At this, everyone is proved stupid, ignorant,
every goldsmith put to shame by his idol!
The figures he casts are a fraud;
there is no breath in them;
15 they are nothings, ridiculous objects;
when the day for their punishment comes, they will perish.
16 Ya‘akov’s portion is not like these,
for he is the one who formed all things.
Isra’el is the tribe he claims as his heritage;
Adonai-Tzva’ot is his name.
17 You who are living under the siege,
gather your belongings off the ground,
18 for here is what Adonai says:
“At this time I am slinging away
the inhabitants of the land;
I will distress them,
so that they will feel it.”
19 Woe to me because of my wound!
My injury is incurable!
I used to say, “It’s only an illness,
and I can bear it.”
20 But now my tent is ruined,
all its cords are severed;
my children have left me and are no more;
there is no one to set up my tent again,
no one to raise its curtains.
21 The shepherds have become stupid,
they have not consulted Adonai.
This is why they have not prospered,
and all their flocks are scattered.
22 Listen! A noise! It’s coming closer!
A great uproar from the land to the north,
to make the cities of Y’hudah desolate,
a place for jackals to live.
23 Adonai, I know that the way of humans
is not in their control,
humans are not able
to direct their steps as they walk.
24 Adonai, correct me, but in moderation,
not in your anger, or you’ll reduce me to nothing.
25 Pour out your anger on the nations
that do not acknowledge you,
also on the families
that do not call on your name.
For they have consumed Ya‘akov —
consumed him and finished him off,
and laid waste to his home.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
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