Jeremiah 2:31-4:18

English Standard Version

³¹And you, O generation, behold the word of the Lord.
Have I been a wilderness to Israel,
    or a land of thick darkness?
Why then do my people say, ‘We are free,
    we will come no more to you’?
³²^(A)Can a virgin forget her ornaments,
    or a bride her attire?
Yet ^(B)my people have forgotten me
    days without number.

³³“How well you direct your course
    to seek love!
So that even to wicked women
    you have taught your ways.
³⁴Also on your skirts is found
    ^(C)the lifeblood of the guiltless poor;
you did not find them ^(D)breaking in.
    Yet in spite of all these things
³⁵you say, ‘I am innocent;
    surely his anger has turned from me.’
^(E)Behold, I will bring you to judgment
    for ^(F)saying, ‘I have not sinned.’
³⁶^(G)How much you go about,
    changing your way!
You shall be ^(H)put to shame by Egypt
    as you were put to shame by Assyria.
³⁷From it too you will come away
    with ^(I)your hands on your head,
for the Lord has rejected those in whom you trust,
    and you will not prosper by them.

3 ^(J)“If^[a] a man divorces his wife
    and she goes from him
and becomes another man's wife,
    will he return to her?
^(K)Would not that land be greatly polluted?
^(L)You have played the whore with many lovers;
    and would you return to me?
declares the Lord.
²Lift up your eyes to ^(M)the bare heights, and see!
    Where have you not been ravished?
^(N)By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers
    like an Arab in the wilderness.
^(O)You have polluted the land
    with your vile whoredom.
³^(P)Therefore the showers have been withheld,
    and the spring rain has not come;
yet you have ^(Q)the forehead of a whore;
    you refuse to be ashamed.
⁴Have you not just now ^(R)called to me,
    ‘My father, you are the friend of my youth—
⁵^(S)will he be angry forever,
    will he be indignant to the end?’
Behold, you have spoken,
    but you have done all the evil that you could.”

Faithless Israel Called to Repentance

⁶The Lord said to me in the days of ^(T)King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, ^(U)how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there ^(V)played the whore? ⁷And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous ^(W)sister Judah saw it. ⁸She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, ^(X)I had sent her away with ^(Y)a decree of divorce. ^(Z)Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went ^(AA)and played the whore. ⁹Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with ^(AB)stone and tree. ¹⁰Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me ^(AC)with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.”

¹¹And the Lord said to me, ^(AD)“Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. ¹²Go, and proclaim these words toward ^(AE)the north, and say,

^(AF)“‘Return, faithless Israel,
declares the Lord.
I will not look on you in anger,
    for ^(AG)I am merciful,
declares the Lord;
^(AH)I will not be angry forever.
¹³^(AI)Only acknowledge your guilt,
    that you rebelled against the Lord your God
and scattered your favors among foreigners under ^(AJ)every green tree,
    and that you have not obeyed my voice,
declares the Lord.
¹⁴^(AK)Return, O faithless children,
declares the Lord;
    ^(AL)for I am your master;
I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
    and I will bring you to Zion.

¹⁵“‘And ^(AM)I will give you shepherds after my own heart, ^(AN)who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. ¹⁶And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. ¹⁷At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, ^(AO)and all nations shall gather to it, ^(AP)to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. ¹⁸^(AQ)In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land ^(AR)of the north to ^(AS)the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.

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 ^(AT)call me, My Father,
    and would not turn from following me.
²⁰^(AU)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 ^(AV)bare heights is heard,
    ^(AW)the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons
because they have perverted their way;
    they have forgotten the Lord their God.
²²^(AX)“Return, O faithless sons;
    ^(AY)I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to you,
    for you are the Lord our God.
²³Truly ^(AZ)the hills are a delusion,
    the orgies^[b] on the mountains.
^(BA)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^(BB)Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For ^(BC)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,
    ^(BD)to me you should return.
If you remove your detestable things from my presence,
    ^(BE)and do not waver,
²^(BF)and if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’
    in truth, in justice, and in righteousness,
then ^(BG)nations shall bless themselves in him,
    ^(BH)and in him shall they glory.”

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

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

Disaster from the North

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

^(BN)“Blow the trumpet through the land;
    cry aloud and say,
^(BO)‘Assemble, and let us go
    into the fortified cities!’
⁶^(BP)Raise a standard toward Zion,
    flee for safety, stay not,
for I bring disaster from ^(BQ)the north,
    ^(BR)and great destruction.
⁷^(BS)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
    ^(BT)without inhabitant.
⁸For this ^(BU)put on sackcloth,
    lament and wail,
for ^(BV)the fierce anger of the Lord
    has not turned back from us.”

⁹“In that day, declares the Lord, ^(BW)courage shall fail both king and officials. The priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded.” ¹⁰Then I said, “Ah, Lord God, ^(BX)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 ^(BY)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 ^(BZ)speak in judgment upon them.”

¹³Behold, he comes up like clouds;
    ^(CA)his chariots like the whirlwind;
his horses are ^(CB)swifter than eagles—
    woe to us, ^(CC)for we are ruined!
¹⁴O Jerusalem, ^(CD)wash your heart from evil,
    that you may be saved.
How long shall your wicked thoughts
    lodge within you?
¹⁵For a voice ^(CE)declares from Dan
    and proclaims trouble from ^(CF)Mount Ephraim.
¹⁶Warn the nations that he is coming;
    announce to Jerusalem,
“Besiegers come ^(CG)from a distant land;
    they shout against the cities of Judah.
¹⁷Like keepers of a field ^(CH)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 ^(CI)it is bitter;
    it has reached your very heart.”