Old/New Testament
Jerusalem Under Siege
6 Flee for refuge, children of Benjamin,
from the midst of Jerusalem!
Blow the shofar in Tekoa
and raise a signal in Beth-cherem!
For disaster looms from the north,
even terrible destruction.
2 “The lovely, delicate Daughter of Zion
I will cut off.”
3 Shepherds with their flocks are coming against her.
All around her they pitch their tents,
each pasturing in his own place.
4 “Prepare for war against her.
Rise up! Let’s attack at noon.”
“Oy for us! For day is fading—
evening shadows are lengthening.”
5 “Rise up! Let’s attack at night
and destroy her palaces.”
6 For thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot:
“Chop down her trees!
Raise a siege ramp at Jerusalem.
This city must be punished—
in her midst is only oppression.
7 As a well gushes out its waters,
so she pours out her wickedness.
Violence and havoc are heard in her,
sickness and wounds ever before Me.
8 Be warned, O Jerusalem,
lest I abandon you,
lest I make you desolate—
an uninhabited land.”
9 Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot:
“Glean the remnant of Israel
thoroughly as a vine.
Pass your hand over the branches once more,
like a grape-gatherer.”
10 “To whom can I speak and warn
so they would hear?
See, their ears are uncircumcised,
unable to hear!
The word of Adonai has become scorn to them.
They have no delight in it.
11 So I am full of the wrath of Adonai.
I am weary of holding it in!
Pour it out on a child in the street,
on young men gathered together.
For husband will be taken with wife,
the aged with the very old.
12 Their homes will be turned over to others
—together with their fields and their wives.
For I will stretch out My hand
on the inhabitants of the land.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
13 “For from the least to the greatest,
all of them are greedy for gain,
and from prophet even to kohen,
everyone practices deceit.
14 They healed the wound of My people superficially,
saying ‘Shalom, shalom!’
when there is no shalom.”
15 “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; at the time that
I punish them, they shall be
overthrown,” says Adonai.
16 Thus says Adonai:
“Stand in the roads and look.
Ask for the ancient paths—
where the good way is—and walk in it.
Then you will find rest for your souls.[a]
But they said, ‘We won’t walk in it.’
17 So I set watchmen over you, saying
‘Listen to the sound of the shofar!’
But they said, ‘We won’t listen.’
18 Therefore hear, O nations
and observe, O congregation,
what is against them.
19 Hear, O earth!
See, I will bring disaster on this people
—fruit of their schemes—
for they did not listen to My words
and rejected My Torah.
20 Of what use to Me is frankincense coming from Sheba
or sweet cane from a distant country?
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable,
nor are your sacrifices pleasing to Me.”
21 Therefore thus says Adonai:
“Look, I am laying before this people stumbling blocks—
and against them they will stumble—
fathers and the sons together,
a neighbor and his friend,
and they will perish.”
Destruction from the North
22 Thus says Adonai:
“Look, a people coming from a northern land,
a great nation roused from the ends of the earth!
23 They are armed with bow and spear,
cruel and with no compassion.
They sound like the roaring sea—
as they ride on horses
as men in battle formation,
against you, Daughter of Zion!”
24 “We have heard of their fame.
Our hands hang limp;
anguish has gripped us,
pain like a woman in labor.
25 Don’t go out into the field
or walk on the road.
Since the enemy has a sword,
there’s terror on every side!”
26 “Daughter of My people,
put on sackcloth and roll in ashes.
Mourn as for an only son
with bitter lamentation.”
“For suddenly the destroyer
will come on us!”
27 “I have made you a metal-tester among My people—
so you may observe and test their way.
28 They are all stubborn rebels
spreading slander.
They are bronze and iron,
all of them are corrupt.
29 The bellows blow fiercely,
blasting away the lead with fire.
The refining is completely in vain,
for the wicked are not drawn off.
30 They are called ‘cast off silver’—
for Adonai has cast them off.”
Mend Your Ways!
7 The word that came to Jeremiah from Adonai, saying: 2 Stand in the gate of Adonai’s house and proclaim there this word and say: “Hear the word of Adonai, all you of Judah that come through these gates to worship Adonai. 3 Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel; mend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you live in this place. 4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say ‘The Temple of Adonai, the Temple of Adonai, the Temple of Adonai!’
5 “No, if you truly mend your ways and your deeds—if you are doing justice between a man and his neighbor, 6 not oppressing the sojourner, orphan and widow nor shedding innocent blood in this place, nor going after other gods to your own ruin— 7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. 8 Look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are empty. 9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and perjury, and offer incense to Baal and walk after other gods whom you have not known— 10 and then come and stand before Me in this house that bears My Name, saying, ‘We are saved!’—so that you may keep doing all these abominations? 11 Has this House, which bears My Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?[b] Look, even I have seen it!” It is a declaration of Adonai.
12 “Indeed, go now to My place that was in Shiloh, where I first made My Name dwell. Now see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. 13 While you were doing all these things,” declares Adonai, “I spoke to you early and often, but you did not listen, and I called you but you did not answer. 14 Therefore I will do to the House that bears My Name—the one in which you trust, the one that I gave to you and to your fathers—as I have done to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of My sight, just as I cast out all your brothers, all the offspring of Ephraim.
16 “As for you, do not pray for this people. Do not offer any supplication or petition for them, nor entreat Me, because I will not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire and the women knead the dough to make sacrificial cakes to the queen of heaven. Moreover, they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to provoke Me to anger. 19 But am I the One they are provoking?” declares Adonai. “Are they not vexing themselves to their own shame?”
20 Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: “My anger and My wrath is about to be poured out on this place—on man and beast, and on the trees of the field and the fruit of the land—and it will burn and not be quenched.”
21 Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the meat! 22 For on the day that I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt I did not speak to them nor did I command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices, 23 but I explicitly commanded them: ‘Obey My voice and I will be your God to you and you will be My people. Walk in all the ways that I command you that it may go well with you.’ 24 But they did not listen or pay attention. Instead they followed their own counsel, in the stubbornness of their evil heart. They have gone backward and not forward, 25 from the day your fathers left the land of Egypt until today. Although I sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily and persistently, 26 they did not listen to Me or pay attention. Rather, they stiffened their neck, doing more evil than their fathers.
27 “When you tell them all these things, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer you. 28 So you will say to them, ‘This nation has not obeyed the voice of Adonai their God or received correction. Truth has perished and is cut off from their mouth. 29 Cut off your hair and throw it away and take up a lamentation on the barren hills. For Adonai has spurned and cast off the generation of His wrath.”
Valley of Slaughter
30 “The children of Judah have done what is evil in My sight”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“They have set their detestable things in the House that bears My Name to defile it. 31 They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire—which I did not command, nor did it even enter My mind. 32 Therefore, the days are soon coming,” declares Adonai, “when it will no longer be called Topheth, nor the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they will bury in Topheth until there is no room. 33 The carcasses of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth, and no one will frighten them away. 34 Then I will bring an end, from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem, to the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. For the land will be desolate.”
8 “At that time”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of his princes, the bones of the kohanim and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will be brought out of their graves. 2 They will spread them out to the sun, the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, and after which they have walked and sought, and which they have worshipped. They will not be gathered or buried, but will be like dung on the face of the ground. 3 So death will be chosen rather than life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family that remains in all the places to which I have driven them.” It is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot.
Each Turns His Own Way
4 Moreover you will say to them, thus says Adonai:
“Do men fall and not get up again?
Does one turn away and not return?
5 Why then has this people—Jerusalem—
turned away in perpetual backsliding?
They cling to deceit; they refuse to return.
6 I listened attentively,
but they have not spoken what is right.
No one repents of his wickedness,
saying, ‘What have I done?’
Each one turns in his own direction,
like a horse charging into battle.
7 Even the stork in the sky
knows her appointed times,
and the turtledove, swallow and crane
observe the time of their migration,
but My people do not know
the judgments of Adonai.
8 How can you say, ‘We are wise!
The Torah of Adonai is with us’?
In fact, it is the lying pen of the scribes
that have made it a lie.
9 The wise men will be put to shame—
shattered, trapped.
Look! They have rejected Adonai’s word,
so what wisdom do they have?
10 Therefore I will give their wives to others
and their fields to new owners.
For from the least to the greatest
everyone is greedy for gain.
From the prophet even to the kohen
everyone practices deceit.
11 They heal the fracture of the daughter of My people
by treating it superficially—
saying, ‘Shalom, shalom,’
when there is no shalom.
12 Were they ashamed of the abomination they committed?
No, not ashamed, not at all—
they do not know how to blush!
So they will fall among the fallen.
At the time of their punishment
they will be brought down.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
13 “I will utterly consume them,” says Adonai.
“There will be no grapes on the vine,
and no figs on the fig tree,
and even the leaf will wither,
and what I gave them will pass away.”
14 “Why are we sitting here?
Assemble!
Let us flee to the fortified cities
and perish there!
For Adonai Eloheinu has silenced us
and given us poisoned water to drink.
For we have sinned against Adonai.
15 We hoped for shalom,
but it is no good,
for a time of healing
—and suddenly, terror!”
16 From Dan is heard
the snorting of his horses.
At the sound of his stallions neighing,
the whole land quakes.
For they come and devour
the land and everything in it—
the city and all who live there.
17 “For I am about to send serpents on you,
vipers for which there is no charm,
and they will bite you.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
Weeping for Jerusalem
18 My joy is overcome by grief,
my heart is faint within me.
19 Listen, the sound of the cry of the daughter of my people
—a voice from a distant land—
“Is Adonai no longer in Zion?
Is her King no longer in her?”
“Why have they provoked Me with their graven images,
with foreign idols?”
20 “Harvest is past,
summer is over,
yet we are not saved.”
21 “Because of the brokenness of the daughter of my people,
I am brokenhearted.
I mourn—desolation grips me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Then why has no healing gone up
for the daughter of my people?
23 If only my head were water
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
then I would weep day and night
for the slain of the daughter of my people!
Giving Honor in the Community
5 Never speak harshly to an older man[a] but appeal to him as a father; to younger men as brothers; 2 older women as mothers; and younger women as sisters—with complete purity.
3 Honor widows who are really widows— 4 but if any widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to show devotion to their own home and give back to their parents, for this is pleasing before God. 5 Now she who is really a widow and has been left alone, has put her hope in God and continues in petitions and prayers night and day. 6 But she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. 7 Insist on these things, so that they might be beyond criticism. 8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, especially those in his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
9 Let a widow be listed only if she is at least sixty, was the wife of one husband, 10 well known for good deeds, if she raised children, if she showed hospitality, if she washed the feet of the kedoshim, if she helped those in trouble, and if she devoted herself to every good work.
11 But refuse younger widows; for when their sensual desires draw them away from the Messiah, they want to get married— 12 facing judgment because they have set aside their previous pledge. 13 And at the same time, they also learn to be idle, going around from house to house—and not just idle, but also gossipers and busybodies, saying things they should not. 14 Therefore, I want the younger widows to get married, have children, manage a household, and give no opportunity to the enemy for slander. 15 For some have already gone astray after satan. 16 If any woman of faith has widows in need, let her help them and not let the community be burdened, so it may help the real widows.
17 The elders who lead well are worthy of honor and honorarium[b]—especially those who work hard in the word and teaching. 18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing,”[c] and, “The worker is worthy of his wage.” [d] 19 Do not accept an accusation against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. [e] 20 Correct those who continue sinning in the presence of everyone, so that the rest also may fear.[f]
21 I solemnly charge you—before God and Messiah Yeshua and the chosen angels—to observe these things without taking sides, doing nothing out of favoritism. 22 Do not lay hands on anyone hastily or take part in the sins of others—keep yourself pure. 23 (No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach and for your frequent ailments.)
24 The sins of some people are obvious, going before them into judgment; but for others, their sins follow. 25 Likewise, good deeds are obvious, and the others cannot stay hidden.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.