Jeremiah 3:19-5:9

English Standard Version

¹⁹“‘I said,
    How I would set you among my sons,
and give you a pleasant land,
    a heritage most beautiful of all nations.
And I thought you would ^(A)call me, My Father,
    and would not turn from following me.
²⁰^(B)Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,
    so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel,
declares the Lord.’”

²¹A voice on the ^(C)bare heights is heard,
    ^(D)the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons
because they have perverted their way;
    they have forgotten the Lord their God.
²²^(E)“Return, O faithless sons;
    ^(F)I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to you,
    for you are the Lord our God.
²³Truly ^(G)the hills are a delusion,
    the orgies^[a] on the mountains.
^(H)Truly in the Lord our God
    is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴“But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. ²⁵^(I)Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For ^(J)we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

4 “If you return, O Israel,
declares the Lord,
    ^(K)to me you should return.
If you remove your detestable things from my presence,
    ^(L)and do not waver,
²^(M)and if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’
    in truth, in justice, and in righteousness,
then ^(N)nations shall bless themselves in him,
    ^(O)and in him shall they glory.”

³For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:

^(P)“Break up your fallow ground,
    and ^(Q)sow not among thorns.
⁴^(R)Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;
    remove the foreskin of your hearts,
    O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;
^(S)lest my wrath go forth like fire,
    and burn with none to quench it,
    ^(T)because of the evil of your deeds.”

Disaster from the North

⁵Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say,

^(U)“Blow the trumpet through the land;
    cry aloud and say,
^(V)‘Assemble, and let us go
    into the fortified cities!’
⁶^(W)Raise a standard toward Zion,
    flee for safety, stay not,
for I bring disaster from ^(X)the north,
    ^(Y)and great destruction.
⁷^(Z)A lion has gone up from his thicket,
    a destroyer of nations has set out;
    he has gone out from his place
to make your land a waste;
    your cities will be ruins
    ^(AA)without inhabitant.
⁸For this ^(AB)put on sackcloth,
    lament and wail,
for ^(AC)the fierce anger of the Lord
    has not turned back from us.”

⁹“In that day, declares the Lord, ^(AD)courage shall fail both king and officials. The priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded.” ¹⁰Then I said, “Ah, Lord God, ^(AE)surely you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘It shall be well with you,’ whereas the sword has reached their very life.”

¹¹At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot wind from ^(AF)the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow or cleanse, ¹²a wind too full for this comes for me. Now it is I who ^(AG)speak in judgment upon them.”

¹³Behold, he comes up like clouds;
    ^(AH)his chariots like the whirlwind;
his horses are ^(AI)swifter than eagles—
    woe to us, ^(AJ)for we are ruined!
¹⁴O Jerusalem, ^(AK)wash your heart from evil,
    that you may be saved.
How long shall your wicked thoughts
    lodge within you?
¹⁵For a voice ^(AL)declares from Dan
    and proclaims trouble from ^(AM)Mount Ephraim.
¹⁶Warn the nations that he is coming;
    announce to Jerusalem,
“Besiegers come ^(AN)from a distant land;
    they shout against the cities of Judah.
¹⁷Like keepers of a field ^(AO)are they against her all around,
    because she has rebelled against me,
declares the Lord.
¹⁸Your ways and your deeds
    have brought this upon you.
This is your doom, and ^(AP)it is bitter;
    it has reached your very heart.”

Anguish over Judah's Desolation

¹⁹^(AQ)My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain!
    Oh the walls of my heart!
My heart is beating wildly;
    I cannot keep silent,
for I hear the sound of the trumpet,
    the alarm of war.
²⁰^(AR)Crash follows hard on crash;
    the whole land is laid waste.
^(AS)Suddenly my tents are laid waste,
    my curtains in a moment.
²¹How long must I see the standard
    and hear the sound of the trumpet?

²²“For ^(AT)my people are foolish;
    they know me not;
they are stupid children;
    they have no understanding.
^(AU)They are ‘wise’—in doing evil!
    But how to do good they know not.”

²³I looked on the earth, and behold, it was ^(AV)without form and void;
    ^(AW)and to the heavens, and they had no light.
²⁴I looked on ^(AX)the mountains, and behold, they were quaking,
    and all the hills moved to and fro.
²⁵^(AY)I looked, and behold, there was no man,
    and all the birds of the air had fled.
²⁶I looked, and behold, the ^(AZ)fruitful land was a desert,
    and all its cities were laid in ruins
    before the Lord, before ^(BA)his fierce anger.

²⁷For thus says the Lord, “The whole land shall be a desolation; ^(BB)yet I will not make a full end.

²⁸^(BC)“For this the earth shall mourn,
^(BD)and the heavens above be dark;
for I have spoken; I have purposed;
^(BE)I have not relented, nor will I turn back.”

²⁹At the noise of horseman and archer
    every city takes to flight;
they enter thickets; they climb among rocks;
    all the cities are forsaken,
    and ^(BF)no man dwells in them.
³⁰And you, O desolate one,
what do you mean that you dress in scarlet,
    ^(BG)that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,
    ^(BH)that you enlarge your eyes with paint?
In vain you beautify yourself.
    ^(BI)Your lovers despise you;
    they seek your life.
³¹For I heard ^(BJ)a cry as of a woman in labor,
    anguish as of one giving birth to her first child,
the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,
    ^(BK)stretching out her hands,
“Woe is me! I am fainting before murderers.”

Jerusalem Refused to Repent

5 ^(BL)Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
    look and take note!
Search her squares to see
    ^(BM)if you can find a man,
one who does justice
    and seeks truth,
^(BN)that I may pardon her.
²^(BO)Though they say, “As the Lord lives,”
    ^(BP)yet they swear falsely.
³O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?
^(BQ)You have struck them down,
    but they felt no anguish;
you have consumed them,
    but they refused to take correction.
^(BR)They have made their faces harder than rock;
    they have refused to repent.

⁴Then I said, “These are only the poor;
    they have no sense;
^(BS)for they do not know the way of the Lord,
    the justice of their God.
⁵I will go to the great
    and will speak to them,
for they know the way of the Lord,
    the justice of their God.”
^(BT)But they all alike had broken the yoke;
    they had burst the bonds.

⁶Therefore ^(BU)a lion from the forest shall strike them down;
    a ^(BV)wolf from the desert shall devastate them.
^(BW)A leopard is watching their cities;
    everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,
because their transgressions are many,
    their ^(BX)apostasies are great.

⁷^(BY)“How can I pardon you?
    Your children have forsaken me
    ^(BZ)and have sworn by those who are no gods.
^(CA)When I fed them to the full,
    ^(CB)they committed adultery
    ^(CC)and trooped to the houses of whores.
⁸They were well-fed, lusty stallions,
    ^(CD)each neighing ^(CE)for his neighbor's wife.
⁹^(CF)Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the Lord;
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?