Jeremiah 5:25-6:16

English Standard Version

²⁵^(A)Your iniquities have turned these away,
    and your sins have kept good from you.
²⁶For wicked men are found among my people;
    ^(B)they lurk like fowlers lying in wait.^[a]
^(C)They set a trap;
    they catch men.
²⁷Like a cage full of birds,
    their houses are full of deceit;
therefore they have become great and rich;
²⁸    ^(D)they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of evil;
    ^(E)they judge not with justice
the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,
    and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
²⁹^(F)Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the Lord,
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?”

³⁰An appalling and ^(G)horrible thing
    has happened in the land:
³¹^(H)the prophets prophesy falsely,
    and the priests rule at their direction;
^(I)my people love to have it so,
    but what will you do when the end comes?

Impending Disaster for Jerusalem

6 Flee for safety, ^(J)O people of Benjamin,
    from the midst of Jerusalem!
Blow the trumpet in ^(K)Tekoa,
    and raise a signal on ^(L)Beth-haccherem,
for disaster looms ^(M)out of the north,
    and great destruction.
²The lovely and delicately bred I will destroy,
    ^(N)the daughter of Zion.^[b]
³^(O)Shepherds with their flocks shall come against her;
    ^(P)they shall pitch their tents around her;
    they shall pasture, each in his place.
⁴^(Q)“Prepare war against her;
    arise, and let us attack ^(R)at noon!
Woe to us, for the day declines,
    for the shadows of evening lengthen!
⁵Arise, and let us attack by night
    and destroy her palaces!”

⁶For thus says the Lord of hosts:
^(S)“Cut down her trees;
    ^(T)cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem.
This is the city that must be ^(U)punished;
    there is nothing but oppression within her.
⁷^(V)As a well keeps its water fresh,
    so she keeps fresh her evil;
^(W)violence and destruction are heard within her;
    sickness and wounds are ever before me.
⁸Be warned, O Jerusalem,
    ^(X)lest I turn from you in disgust,
lest I make you ^(Y)a desolation,
    an uninhabited land.”

⁹Thus says the Lord of hosts:
^(Z)“They shall glean thoroughly as a vine
    the remnant of Israel;
like a grape gatherer pass your hand again
    over its branches.”
¹⁰^(AA)To whom shall I speak and give warning,
    that they may hear?
^(AB)Behold, their ears are uncircumcised,
    ^(AC)they cannot listen;
behold, ^(AD)the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn;
    they take no pleasure in it.
¹¹Therefore I am full of the wrath of the Lord;
    ^(AE)I am weary of holding it in.
^(AF)“Pour it out upon the children in the street,
    and upon the gatherings of young men, also;
^(AG)both husband and wife ^(AH)shall be taken,
    the elderly and the very aged.
¹²^(AI)Their houses shall be turned over to others,
    their fields and wives together,
for I will stretch out my hand
    against the inhabitants of the land,”
declares the Lord.
¹³^(AJ)“For from the least to the greatest of them,
    everyone ^(AK)is greedy for unjust gain;
and from ^(AL)prophet to priest,
    everyone deals falsely.
¹⁴They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
    saying, ^(AM)‘Peace, peace,’
    ^(AN)when there is no peace.
¹⁵^(AO)Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
    No, they were not at all ashamed;
    they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
    ^(AP)at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,”
says the Lord.

¹⁶Thus says the Lord:
“Stand by the roads, and look,
and ask for ^(AQ)the ancient paths,
where the good way is; and walk in it,
^(AR)and find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’