Jeremiah 4:14-5:6

English Standard Version

¹⁴O Jerusalem, ^(A)wash your heart from evil,
    that you may be saved.
How long shall your wicked thoughts
    lodge within you?
¹⁵For a voice ^(B)declares from Dan
    and proclaims trouble from ^(C)Mount Ephraim.
¹⁶Warn the nations that he is coming;
    announce to Jerusalem,
“Besiegers come ^(D)from a distant land;
    they shout against the cities of Judah.
¹⁷Like keepers of a field ^(E)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 ^(F)it is bitter;
    it has reached your very heart.”

Anguish over Judah's Desolation

¹⁹^(G)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^(H)Crash follows hard on crash;
    the whole land is laid waste.
^(I)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 ^(J)my people are foolish;
    they know me not;
they are stupid children;
    they have no understanding.
^(K)They are ‘wise’—in doing evil!
    But how to do good they know not.”

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

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

²⁸^(S)“For this the earth shall mourn,
^(T)and the heavens above be dark;
for I have spoken; I have purposed;
^(U)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 ^(V)no man dwells in them.
³⁰And you, O desolate one,
what do you mean that you dress in scarlet,
    ^(W)that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,
    ^(X)that you enlarge your eyes with paint?
In vain you beautify yourself.
    ^(Y)Your lovers despise you;
    they seek your life.
³¹For I heard ^(Z)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,
    ^(AA)stretching out her hands,
“Woe is me! I am fainting before murderers.”

Jerusalem Refused to Repent

5 ^(AB)Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
    look and take note!
Search her squares to see
    ^(AC)if you can find a man,
one who does justice
    and seeks truth,
^(AD)that I may pardon her.
²^(AE)Though they say, “As the Lord lives,”
    ^(AF)yet they swear falsely.
³O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?
^(AG)You have struck them down,
    but they felt no anguish;
you have consumed them,
    but they refused to take correction.
^(AH)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;
^(AI)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.”
^(AJ)But they all alike had broken the yoke;
    they had burst the bonds.

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