Beginning
Chapter 10
The Folly of Idolatry. 1 Hear the word the Lord speaks to you, house of Israel. 2 Thus says the Lord:
Do not learn the ways of the nations,
and have no fear of the signs in the heavens,[a]
even though the nations fear them.(A)
3 For the carvings of the nations are nonentities,
wood cut from the forest,
Fashioned by artisans with the adze,(B)
4 adorned with silver and gold.
With nails and hammers they are fastened,
so they do not fall.(C)
5 Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they,
they cannot speak;
They must be carried about,
for they cannot walk.
Do not fear them, they can do no harm,
neither can they do good.(D)
6 No one is like you, Lord,
you are great,
great and mighty is your name.(E)
7 Who would not fear you,
King of the nations,
for it is your due!
Among all the wisest of the nations,
and in all their domains,
there is none like you.(F)
8 One and all they are stupid and senseless,
the instruction from nonentities—only wood!
9 Silver plates brought from Tarshish,
and gold from Ophir,
The work of the artisan
and the handiwork of the smelter,
Clothed with violet and purple—
all of them the work of skilled workers.
10 The Lord is truly God,
he is the living God, the eternal King,
Before whose anger the earth quakes,
whose wrath the nations cannot endure.(G)
11 Thus shall you say of them: The gods that did not make heaven and earth—let these perish from earth and from beneath heaven
12 The one who made the earth by his power,
established the world by his wisdom,
and by his skill stretched out the heavens.(I)
13 When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar,
and he brings up clouds from the end of the earth,
Makes lightning flash in the rain,
and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
14 Everyone is too stupid to know;
every artisan is put to shame by his idol:
He has molded a fraud,
without breath of life.(J)
15 They are nothing, objects of ridicule;
they will perish in their time of punishment.
16 Jacob’s portion is nothing like them:
for he is the maker of everything!
Israel is his very own tribe,
Lord of hosts is his name.(K)
Abandonment of Judah
17 Gather up your bundle from the land,
City living under siege!
18 For thus says the Lord:
Now, at this time
I will sling away the inhabitants of the land;
I will hem them in,
that they may be taken.
19 Woe is me! I am undone,
my wound is beyond healing.
Yet I had thought:
if I make light of my sickness, I can bear it.
20 My tent is ruined,
all its cords are severed.
My children have left me, they are no more:
no one to pitch my tent,
no one to raise its curtains.(L)
21 How stupid are the shepherds!
The Lord they have not sought;
For this reason they have failed,
and all their flocks scattered.(M)
22 Listen! a rumor! here it comes,
a great commotion from the land of the north:
To make the cities of Judah a desolation,
the haunt of jackals.
Prayer of Jeremiah
23 I know, Lord,
that no one chooses their way,
Nor determines their course
nor directs their own step.
24 Correct me, Lord, but with equity,
not in anger, lest you diminish me.
25 Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you,
on the tribes that do not call your name;
For they have utterly devoured Jacob,
and laid waste his home.(N)
Chapter 11
Plea for Fidelity to the Covenant. 1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 Speak to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 3 and say to them: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed be anyone who does not observe the words of this covenant,(O) 4 which I commanded your ancestors the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that iron furnace, saying: Listen to my voice and do all that I command you. Then you shall be my people, and I will be your God.(P) 5 Thus I will fulfill the oath I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, the one you have today. “Amen, Lord,” I answered.
6 Then the Lord said to me: Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and obey them. 7 I warned your ancestors unceasingly from the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt even to this day: obey my voice. 8 But they did not listen or obey. They each walked in the stubbornness of their evil hearts, till I brought upon them all the threats of this covenant which they had failed to observe as I commanded them.(Q)
9 A conspiracy has been found, the Lord said to me, among the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: 10 They have returned to the crimes of their ancestors who refused to obey my words. They also have followed and served other gods; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their ancestors.(R) 11 Therefore, thus says the Lord: See, I am bringing upon them a disaster they cannot escape. Though they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.(S) 12 Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they have been offering incense. But these gods will give them no help whatever in the time of their disaster.(T)
13 For as many as your cities
are your gods, O Judah!
As many as the streets of Jerusalem
are the altars for sacrifice to Baal.(U)
14 Now, you must not intercede for this people; do not raise on their behalf a cry or prayer! I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their disaster.(V)
Sacrifices of No Avail
15 What right has my beloved in my house,
while she devises her plots?
Can vows and sacred meat turn away
your disaster from you?
Will you still be jubilant
16 when you hear the great tumult?
The Lord has named you
“a spreading olive tree, a pleasure to behold”;
Now he sets fire to it,
its branches burn.
17 The Lord of hosts who planted you has decreed disaster for you because of the evil done by the house of Israel and by the house of Judah, who provoked me by sacrificing to Baal.(W)
The Plot Against Jeremiah. 18 I knew it because the Lord informed me: at that time you showed me their doings.
19 Yet I was like a trusting lamb led to slaughter, not knowing that they were hatching plots against me: “Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will no longer be remembered.”(X)
20 But, you, Lord of hosts, just Judge,
searcher of mind and heart,
Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause!(Y)
21 Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the men of Anathoth who seek your life and say, “Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord; otherwise you shall die by our hand.”(Z) 22 Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: I am going to punish them. The young men shall die by the sword; their sons and daughters shall die by famine.(AA) 23 None shall be spared among them, for I will bring disaster upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their punishment.(AB)
Chapter 12
1 You would be in the right, O Lord,
if I should dispute with you;
even so, I must lay out the case against you.
Why does the way of the wicked prosper,
why do all the treacherous live in contentment?(AC)
2 You planted them; they have taken root,
they flourish and bear fruit as well.
You are upon their lips,
but far from their thoughts.(AD)
3 Lord, you know me, you see me,
you have found that my heart is with you.(AE)
Pick them out like sheep for the butcher,
set them apart for the day of slaughter.[c]
4 How long must the land mourn,
the grass of the whole countryside wither?
Because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it
beasts and birds disappear,
for they say, “God does not care about our future.”
5 If running against men has wearied you,
how will you race against horses?
And if you are safe only on a level stretch,
what will you do in the jungle of the Jordan?
6 Your kindred and your father’s house, even they betray you; they have recruited a force against you. Do not believe them, even when they speak fair words to you.(AF)
The Lord’s Complaint
7 I have abandoned my house,
cast off my heritage;
The beloved of my soul I have delivered
into the hand of her foes.(AG)
8 My heritage has become for me
like a lion in the thicket;
She has raised her voice against me,
therefore she has incurred my hatred.(AH)
9 My heritage is a prey for hyenas,
is surrounded by vultures;
Come, gather together, all you wild animals,
come and eat!(AI)
10 Many shepherds have ravaged my vineyard,
have trampled down my heritage;
My delightful portion they have turned
into a desert waste.(AJ)
11 They have made it a mournful waste,
desolate before me,
Desolate, the whole land,
because no one takes it to heart.
12 Upon every height in the wilderness
marauders have appeared.
The Lord has a sword that consumes
the land from end to end:
no peace for any living thing.(AK)
13 They have sown wheat and reaped thorns,
they have tired themselves out for no purpose;
They are shamed by their harvest,
the burning anger of the Lord.
Judah’s Neighbors. 14 Thus says the Lord, against all my evil neighbors[d] who plunder the heritage I gave my people Israel as their own: See, I will uproot them from their land; the house of Judah I will uproot in their midst.(AL)
15 But after uprooting them, I will have compassion on them again and bring them back, each to their heritage, each to their land.(AM) 16 And if they truly learn my people’s custom of swearing by my name, “As the Lord lives,” just as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people.(AN) 17 But if they do not obey, I will uproot and destroy that nation entirely—oracle of the Lord.(AO)
Chapter 13
Judah’s Corruption.[e] 1 The Lord said to me: Go buy yourself a linen loincloth; wear it on your loins, but do not put it in water. 2 I bought the loincloth, as the Lord commanded, and put it on. 3 A second time the word of the Lord came to me thus: 4 Take the loincloth which you bought and are wearing, and go at once to the Perath; hide it there in a cleft of the rock. 5 Obedient to the Lord’s command, I went to the Perath and buried the loincloth. 6 After a long time, the Lord said to me: Go now to the Perath and fetch the loincloth which I told you to hide there. 7 So I went to the Perath, looked for the loincloth and took it from the place I had hidden it. But it was rotted, good for nothing! 8 Then the word came to me from the Lord: 9 Thus says the Lord: So also I will allow the pride of Judah to rot, the great pride of Jerusalem.(AP) 10 This wicked people who refuse to obey my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and follow other gods, serving and worshiping them, will be like this loincloth, good for nothing.(AQ) 11 For, as the loincloth clings to a man’s loins, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me—oracle of the Lord—to be my people, my fame, my praise, my glory. But they did not listen.(AR)
The Broken Wineflask. 12 Now speak to them this word: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Every wineflask should be filled with wine. If they reply, “Do we not know that every wineflask should be filled with wine?” 13 say to them: Thus says the Lord: Beware! I am making all the inhabitants of this land drunk, the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests and prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.(AS) 14 I will smash them against each other, parents and children together—oracle of the Lord—showing no compassion, I will neither spare nor pity, but I will destroy them.(AT)
A Last Warning
15 Listen and give ear, do not be arrogant,
for the Lord speaks.
16 Give glory to the Lord, your God,
before he brings darkness;
Before your feet stumble
on mountains at twilight;
Before the light you look for turns to darkness,
changes into black clouds.(AU)
17 If you do not listen to this in your pride,
I will weep many tears in secret;
My eyes will run with tears
for the Lord’s flock, led away to exile.(AV)
Exile
18 Say to the king and to the queen mother:
come down from your throne;
From your heads
your splendid crowns will fall.(AW)
19 The cities of the Negeb are besieged,
with no one to relieve them;
Judah is taken into exile—all of it—
in total exile.
Jerusalem’s Disgrace
20 Lift up your eyes and see
those coming in from the north.
Where is the flock entrusted to you,
your splendid sheep?(AX)
21 What will you say when rulers are appointed over you,
those you taught to be allies?
Will not pains seize you
like those of a woman giving birth?(AY)
22 If you say to yourself:
“Why have these things happened to me?”
For your great guilt your skirts are stripped away
and you are violated.(AZ)
23 Can Ethiopians change their skin,
leopards their spots?
As easily would you be able to do good,
accustomed to evil as you are.(BA)
24 I will scatter them like chaff that flies
on the desert wind.(BB)
25 This is your lot, the portion I have measured out to you—
oracle of the Lord.
Because you have forgotten me,
and trusted in deception,[f](BC)
26 I now will strip away your skirts,
so that your shame is visible.(BD)
27 Your adulteries, your neighings,
your shameless prostitutions:
On the hills, in the fields
I see your detestable crimes.
Woe to you, Jerusalem! How long will it be
before you are clean?(BE)
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.