Jeremiah 9-11

EasyEnglish Bible

9 ‘My head should be like a pool of water.
    My eyes should be like a river of tears.
Then I would never stop crying
    for my dear people who have died in war.
² I would like to live in a hut in the desert.
    Then I could leave my people.
    I could forget about them.
They have all turned away from God.
    They have not been faithful to him.
They are a crowd of people that nobody can trust.’

‘The tongues of these people speak lies,
    like the bows of soldiers shoot arrows.
They have become powerful in the land,
    but they have used lies to do that.
They do more and more evil things,
    and they do not respect me.
⁴ Be careful of your friends.
    Do not even trust your brothers!
They will always try to cheat you.
    All your friends will speak lies about you.
⁵ They deceive each other,
    and they never tell the truth.
They have taught their tongues to speak lies.
They love to do bad things
    and they cannot stop themselves.
⁶ They hurt and they deceive each other.
    They do that more and more.
They refuse to respect me.’

‘Listen! I will test my people,
    like a man uses fire to make metal become pure.
I must punish them like this because they are so wicked.
    There is nothing else that I can do!
⁸ Their tongues are like arrows that have poison.
    They hurt people with their lies.
They speak kind words to their neighbours,
    but they are looking for a way to cheat them.
⁹ I must certainly punish them for what they have done.
    I will pay back this wicked nation for their sins.’

‘I will make Jerusalem a heap of stones.
    Only wild animals will live there.
I will destroy the towns of Judah
    so that nobody can live in them.’

‘Think about what is happening!
Call the women who weep at funerals.
    Bring those women who know what to do.’
¹⁸ ‘Yes, tell them to come quickly
    to sing funeral songs for us.^[a]
Then tears will pour from our eyes,
    and we will not stop weeping.
¹⁹ Listen to the people who are crying in Jerusalem!
They say,
    “A terrible thing has happened to us!
    We are very ashamed!
Our enemies have destroyed our houses.
    Now we have to leave our land.” ’
²⁰ ‘Now hear the Lord's message, you women.
    Listen to what he says to you.
Teach your daughters how to weep.
    Teach each other this funeral song:
²¹ “Death has come to visit us!
    It has come into our strong houses.
Death has taken away our children
    who play in the streets.
It has taken away our young men
    who meet together in the streets.”

Dead bodies of people will lie everywhere on the ground.
They will lie there like dung
    that a farmer puts on his fields.
They will lie there like crops at harvest time
    that nobody has picked up.’

‘Wise people should not be proud of their wisdom.
    Powerful people should not be proud of their power.
    And rich people should not be proud that they are rich.
²⁴ If they want to be proud about something,
    they should be proud that they know me.
    They should boast that they understand who I am.
I am the Lord.
    I am faithful in my love for my people.
    I always do what is right and fair.
It makes me happy when people live in that way too.’

‘Do not copy the way that people of other nations live.
They are afraid of strange things that they see in the sky.
    But you must not be afraid of those things.^[b]
3 The customs of those people are useless.^[c]
They cut down a tree in the forest.
    A worker uses his tools to make it into an idol.
⁴ He covers it with silver and gold
    to make it look beautiful.
He uses nails to fix it together
    so that it will not fall down.
⁵ Those idols cannot speak.
    They are like scarecrows that a farmer puts in his field of vegetables.^[d]
The idols cannot walk,
    so people have to carry them.
So do not be afraid of them.
    They cannot hurt you.
And they do not have any power to help you.’

⁶ There is nobody like you, Lord.
    You are great and your name shows your power.
⁷ Everyone should respect you,
    the King who rules all the nations.
You deserve that people give you honour.
There is nobody like you anywhere in the world.
    Among all the wise people of the nations
    and among all their kings,
there is no one like you.
⁸ The people of those nations are stupid and foolish.
    They think that wooden idols can teach them something!
⁹ They bring thin silver from Spain.
    They bring gold from Uphaz.
Workers who know how to use wood and metal
    make the idols look beautiful.
They put valuable blue and purple clothes on the idols.
    Workers who have special skills do this.
¹⁰ But the Lord is the only true God.
    He is the God who is alive.
    He is the King who rules for ever.
When he is angry, the earth shakes.
    None of the nations can stop his anger.

‘Your gods did not make the earth or the sky.
    They will disappear completely from everywhere on earth
    and everywhere in the sky.’
¹² But the Lord used his power to make the earth.
    He used his wisdom to make it strong.
He knew how to put the sky to cover the earth.
¹³ When he shouts like thunder,
    the water in the sky roars.
He causes clouds to rise from the far places of the earth.
    He causes bright lightning to show in the storms.
He opens his rooms so that the wind comes out
    and it blows everywhere.
¹⁴ People who worship idols are stupid.
    They do not understand what they are doing.
The men who make idols will be ashamed.
    They make images of gods that are false.
    None of their idols have the breath of life in them.
¹⁵ They are useless things that people should laugh at.
When the time for their punishment arrives,
    God will destroy them.
¹⁶ The God that Jacob's descendants worship
    is not like those idols.
He created everything.
He chose the Israelites as the people who would belong to him.
    His name is the Lord Almighty.

‘I will now throw out the people who live in this land.
I will bring much trouble to them,
    and they will be in pain.’

¹⁹ ‘A terrible thing has happened to us!^[e]
    We have received a very bad wound.
We thought, “We are very ill,
    but one day we will get better.”
²⁰ But now they have destroyed our tent.
    They have broken the ropes that held it.^[f]
Our children have gone,
    and none of them remain.
There is nobody still alive
    who can help us build our homes again.
²¹ Our leaders are fools.
    They do not ask the Lord for his advice.
So they have failed to take care of us,
    and all their people have disappeared.^[g]
22 Listen! We have heard the news!
There is the noise of a great army in the north.
    It is marching towards us!
It is coming to attack the towns of Judah.
    It will make them heaps of stones.
    Only wild animals will live in them.

²³ Lord, I know that nobody controls their own life.
    Nobody can decide what will happen to them.
²⁴ Lord, teach us what is right,
    but do it carefully.
Please do not punish us in your anger.
    That would be the end of us.
²⁵ Instead, be angry with the nations that do not respect you.
    Be angry with the people who do not worship you.
Those are the people who have destroyed Jacob's descendants.^[h]
    They have killed our people.
    They have destroyed our land and our homes.’

¹⁵ The people that I love are doing wicked things.
    They should not be in my temple.
They think that they will be safe
    if they offer animal sacrifices to me.
They enjoy the evil things that they do,
    and their punishment will certainly happen.
¹⁶ I, the Lord, called you a beautiful olive tree.
    It was a tree that gave lots of good fruit.
But now I will destroy you with fire.
    The flames will make a loud noise.
    All your branches will be useless.
¹⁷ I, the Lord Almighty, planted you in the land, like a tree.
    But now you have caused me to be angry.
You nations of Israel and Judah have done evil things.
    And you have offered sacrifices to Baal.
So now I have decided to punish you with great trouble.’