Jeremiah 3-5

Common English Bible

3 If a man divorces his wife,
    and after she leaves him marries another,
        can he return to her again?
    Wouldn’t such an act completely corrupt the land?
Yet you have prostituted yourself with many lovers.
    Would you return to me?
        declares the Lord.
² Look to the well-traveled paths^[a] and see!
    Where haven’t you committed adultery?
On the roadsides you sit in wait for lovers,
    like a nomad in the wilderness.
You have corrupted the land
    with your cheap and reckless behavior.
³ That’s why the showers have failed
    and the spring rains have ceased.
Still you act like a brazen prostitute^[b]
    who refuses to blush.
⁴ At the same time you say to me,
    “My father, my friend since youth,
⁵         will you stay angry forever?
        Will you continue to be furious?”
This is what you say
    while you do as much evil as you possibly can.

Return, unfaithful Israel,
        declares the Lord.
I won’t reject you,
    for I’m faithful,
        declares the Lord;
I won’t stay angry forever.
¹³ Only acknowledge your wrongdoing:
    how you have rebelled against the Lord your God,
        and given yourself to strangers
            under every lush tree
        and haven’t obeyed me,
            declares the Lord.
¹⁴ Return, rebellious children,
        declares the Lord,
    for I’m your husband.
I’ll gather you—
    one from a city and two from a tribe—
        and bring you back to Zion.

¹⁹ I thought to myself, How wonderful it would be
    to treat you like children
    and give you a beautiful land,
        an inheritance unrivaled among the nations.
And I thought, You will call me father,
    and you won’t turn away from me.
²⁰ But as a woman betrays her lover,
    so you, people of Israel, have betrayed me,
        declares the Lord.
²¹ A voice is heard on the well-traveled paths;^[e]
    it’s the crying and pleading of the people of Israel,
        who have lost their way
        and forgotten the Lord their God.
²² Return, rebellious children,
    and I will heal your rebellion.

Break up your hard rocky soil;
    don’t plant among the thorns.
⁴ Dedicate^[i] yourselves to the Lord;
    don’t be thick-skinned,^[j]
        people of Judah and residents of Jerusalem,
    or else my anger will spread like a wildfire.
        It will burn, with no one to put it out,
        because of your evil deeds.

⁵ Announce in Judah,
        in Jerusalem proclaim,
    sound the alarm throughout the land,
        cry out and say,
        “Gather together!
        Let’s flee to the fortified towns!”
⁶ Set up a flag to Zion;
    take cover, don’t just stand there!
I’m bringing disaster from the north,
    massive devastation.
⁷ A lion bursts out of the thicket;
    a destroyer of nations advances.
He’s gone forth from his place
    to ravage your land,
    to wipe out your towns,
        until no one is left.
⁸ So put on funeral clothing.
    Weep and wail,
        for the Lord’s fierce anger
        hasn’t turned away from us.
⁹ On that day, declares the Lord,
    the courage of the king and his princes will fail,
    the priests will be stunned,
        and the prophets will be shocked.
¹⁰ Then I said, “Lord God, no!
    You have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem
        by promising them peace
even though the sword is at their throats.”
¹¹ At that time, this people and Jerusalem will be told:
A blistering wind from the bare heights;
    it rages in the desert toward my people,
        not merely to winnow or cleanse.
¹²     This wind is too devastating for that.
Now I, even I, will pronounce my sentence against them.
¹³ Look! He approaches like the clouds;
        his chariots advance like a tempest,
        his horses swifter than eagles.
    How horrible! We’re doomed!
¹⁴ Cleanse your heart of evil, Jerusalem,
    that you may be saved.
    How long will you entertain your destructive ideas?
¹⁵ A voice declares from Dan;
    someone proclaims disaster from the highlands of Ephraim.
¹⁶ Warn the nations,
    proclaim it to Jerusalem!
        Armies are approaching from a far-away country,
        raising their war cries against the towns of Judah.
¹⁷ They hem her in like those guarding a field,
    because she has rebelled against me,
        declares the Lord.
¹⁸ Your own conduct, your own deeds have done this to you.
This is your payment and how bitter it is,
    piercing into the depths of your heart.

¹⁹ Oh, my suffering, my suffering!
    My pain is unbearable;
    my heart is in turmoil;
    it throbs nonstop.
I can’t be silent, because I hear the blast of the trumpet
    and the roar of the battle cry!
²⁰ Disaster follows disaster;
    the whole land is ruined.
Suddenly, my tents are destroyed,
    my shelter in a moment.
²¹ How long must I see the battle flags
    and hear the blast of the trumpet?
²² My people are foolish.
    They don’t even know me!
They are thoughtless children
    without understanding;
        they are skilled at doing wrong,
        inept at doing right.
²³ I looked at the earth,
    and it was without shape or form;
        at the heavens
        and there was no light.
²⁴ I looked at the mountains
    and they were quaking;
    all the hills were rocking back and forth.
²⁵ I looked and there was no one left;
    every bird in the sky had taken flight.
²⁶ I looked and the fertile land was a desert;
    all its towns were in ruins
        before the Lord,
        before his fury.
²⁷ The Lord proclaims:
    The whole earth will become a desolation,
        but I will not destroy it completely.
²⁸ Therefore, the earth will grieve
    and the heavens grow dark
        because I have declared my plan
        and will neither change my mind
            nor cancel the plan.
²⁹ As the horsemen and archers approach,
    the people take flight.
They hide in the bushes
    and escape to the cliffs.
Every city is deserted;
    no one remains.
³⁰ And you, devastated one,
    why dress up in scarlet,
    deck yourself in gold jewelry,
    and color your eyes with paint?
In vain you get all decked out;
    your lovers have rejected you
    and now seek your life.
³¹ I hear the cry of a woman in labor,
    the distress of one delivering her first child.
It is the cry of Daughter Zion,
    gasping for breath,
    her arms stretched out,
    and moaning,
    “I’m about to fall into the hands of murderers!”

5 Search every street in Jerusalem,
    comb the squares,
    look far and wide
        for one person,
        even one who acts justly
        and seeks truth that I may pardon her!
² Even when making a pledge—“As the Lord lives”—
    they swear falsely.
³ Lord, don’t you look for integrity?
You have struck them down,
    but they didn’t even cringe.
You have crushed them,
    but they have ignored your discipline.
They make their faces harder than rock
    and refuse to return.
⁴ Then I thought to myself,
    These are the poor who don’t know better!
    They don’t understand the Lord’s way
        or the justice of their God.
⁵ Let me go and speak to the powerful people,
    for they will surely know the Lord’s way
    and the justice of their God.
But they too have broken their yoke
    and shattered the chains.
⁶ Therefore, a lion from the forest will attack them;
    a wolf from the desert will destroy them;
    a leopard prowling around their towns
        will tear to pieces anyone venturing out—
        because of their many crimes
        and countless acts of unfaithfulness.
⁷ How can I pardon you?
    Your children have forsaken me
        and swear by gods that are not gods.
Although I could have satisfied them,
    they committed adultery,
        dashing off to the prostitution house.
⁸ They are lusty stallions roving about,
    snorting for another’s wife.
⁹ The Lord declares:
    Shouldn’t I confront these acts?
    Shouldn’t I take revenge on such a nation?

¹⁰ Climb through her vineyards and ravage them,
    although not completely.
Prune back her branches,
    because they aren’t the Lord’s.
¹¹ The people of Israel and Judah
    have been utterly faithless to me,
        declares the Lord.
¹² They have lied about the Lord
    and said, “He’ll do nothing!^[k]
Disaster won’t come upon us;
    we won’t see war or famine.”
¹³ The prophets are so much wind;
    the word isn’t in them.
        Thus and so may it be done to them.

Because you have spoken this way,
    I will put my words
        in your mouth as a fire;
    it will consume the people,
        who are but kindling.
¹⁵ I am about to bring a distant nation against you,
        people of Israel,
        declares the Lord.
    It is an established nation,
        an ancient nation,
        a nation whose language you don’t know,
        whose speech you won’t understand.
¹⁶ Its weapons are deadly;^[l]
    its warriors are many.
¹⁷ It will devour your harvest and food;
    it will devour your sons and daughters;
    it will devour your flocks and herds;
    it will devour your vines and fig trees;
    it will shatter your fortified towns in which you trust—
        with the sword!

²⁰ Declare this to the people of Jacob,
    announce it in Judah:
²¹ Listen, you foolish and senseless people,
    who have eyes but don’t see
        and ears but don’t hear.
²² Shouldn’t you fear me,
        declares the Lord,
    and tremble before me,
        the one who set the shoreline for the sea,
        an ancient boundary that it can’t pass?
Though its waves may rise and roar,
    they can’t pass the limits I have set.
²³ And yet the people have stubborn and rebellious hearts;
    they turn and go their own way.
²⁴ They don’t say in their hearts,
    Let’s fear the Lord our God,
        who provides rain in autumn and spring
        and who assures us of a harvest in its season.
²⁵ Your wrongdoing has turned these blessings^[m] away.
    Your sin has robbed you of good.
²⁶ Criminals are found among my people;
    they set traps to catch people,
        like hunters lying in wait.^[n]
27 Like a cage full of birds,
    so their houses are full of loot.
No wonder they are rich and powerful
²⁸     and have grown fat and sleek!
To be sure, their evil deeds exceed all limits,
    and yet they prosper.
They are indifferent to the plight of the orphan,
    reluctant to defend the rights of the poor.
²⁹ Shouldn’t I punish such acts?
        declares the Lord.
    Shouldn’t I repay that nation for its deeds?
³⁰ An awful, a terrible thing
    has happened in the land:
³¹         The prophets prophesy falsely,
        the priests rule at their sides,^[o]
        and my people love it this way!
But what will you do when the end comes?