Jeremiah 15:1-14

English Standard Version

The Lord Will Not Relent

15 Then the Lord said to me, ^(A)“Though ^(B)Moses ^(C)and Samuel ^(D)stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go! ²And when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:

^(E)“‘Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence,
and those who are for the sword, to the sword;
those who are for famine, to famine,
and those who are for captivity, to captivity.’

³^(F)I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and ^(G)the birds of the air ^(H)and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. ⁴^(I)And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what ^(J)Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.

⁵^(K)“Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,
    ^(L)or who will grieve for you?
Who will turn aside
    to ask about your welfare?
⁶^(M)You have rejected me, declares the Lord;
    ^(N)you keep going backward,
so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you—
    ^(O)I am weary of relenting.
⁷^(P)I have winnowed them with ^(Q)a winnowing fork
    in the gates of the land;
I have bereaved them; I have destroyed my people;
    ^(R)they did not turn from their ways.
⁸I have made their widows more in number
    than ^(S)the sand of the seas;
I have brought against the mothers of young men
    a destroyer at noonday;
I have made anguish and terror
    fall upon them suddenly.
⁹^(T)She who bore seven has grown feeble;
    ^(U)she has fainted away;
^(V)her sun went down while it was yet day;
    she has been shamed and disgraced.
And the rest of them I will give to the sword
    before their enemies,
declares the Lord.”

Jeremiah's Complaint

¹⁰^(W)Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! ^(X)I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me. ¹¹The Lord said, “Have I not^[a] set you free for their good? Have I not pleaded for you before the enemy in the time of trouble and in the time of distress? ¹²Can one break iron, iron ^(Y)from the north, and bronze?

¹³^(Z)“Your wealth and your treasures I will give as ^(AA)spoil, without price, for all your sins, throughout all your territory. ¹⁴I will make you serve your enemies ^(AB)in a land that you do not know, ^(AC)for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”