Old/New Testament

9 Jeremiah: O that my head were a spring of water
        and my eyes a fountain of tears;
    Then I could weep day and night for my poor people
        who have been slaughtered.
²     O that I had a place in the desert I could run to,
        a haven for travelers.
    Then I could leave my people,
        for they are all an adulterous and treacherous lot.

³ Eternal One: With tongues bent like bows they shoot their lies at one another.
        Truth does not win out in this land; deceit always seems to triumph.
    One evil leads to another because they don’t know who I am.
⁴     Let everyone be careful of his neighbor,
        and think twice before he trusts his brothers;
    For every brother is ready to cheat and deceive;
        every neighbor is prepared to lie when it suits him.
⁵     In this land of liars, friends have no misgivings about deceiving one another;
        no one even thinks to tell the truth.
    They’ve trained their tongues to utter lies;
        they wear themselves out with all their sinning.
⁶     Jeremiah, you live in a place where deception is assumed;
        as their lies pile up, they refuse to acknowledge Me.

Eternal One: Watch, I will refine this nation and put them to the test.
        What else can I do with My people?
⁸     Their tongues are like deadly arrows;
        they speak such lies;
    Each one leads his neighbor with kind words
        into a trap that was already set.
⁹     Should I not punish them for what they do?
        Should I not repay a nation that acts this way?

¹⁰ Jeremiah: I will weep bitterly for the mountains of my homeland
        and grieve for the death of her wild meadows.
    For they have become a silent wasteland
        where no one dares to travel.
    Pastures once filled with the lowing of cattle, now are empty and lifeless.
        All the animals have fled; even the birds have left the sky.

¹¹ Eternal One: I will leave Jerusalem in ruins;
        her rubble will be the haunt of jackals.
    I will wreak the same havoc on the cities of Judah;
        no person will be found there.

Eternal One: Think this over, and summon the mourners.
        Send for the women who will chant the dirge, that they may come.
¹⁸     Let them be quick about it: weep and wail,
        that our eyes may fill with tears that streak down our faces.
¹⁹     Listen to the voice of sorrow weeping from Zion herself:
        “We are ruined. All that remains for us is great shame.
    Now we must leave this land that was ours;
        they have torn down our houses.”

²⁰ Jeremiah: So listen now, women of Judah, to the word of the Eternal.
        Mark His words well.
    It is time to teach your daughters how to mourn,
        time to teach your neighbors the song of lament.
²¹     For death has found us all.
        It has crept in through our windows and slipped past our defenses.
    It has cut down our children in the streets,
        and our young men in the public squares. Death has found us all.
²²     Tell everyone what the Eternal has said:
        “The dead bodies of men will fall like dung on the open field.
    Corpses will lie on the ground like grain cut in the harvest;
        but on this day, there will be no one to gather and bury the dead.”

² Eternal One: Don’t learn the strange practices and beliefs of other nations.
    Don’t be terrified by signs in the sky
        just because the other nations are.
³     For their traditions and customs are useless; there is nothing to them.
    A tree is cut down in the forest;
        then an artisan takes out a tool and carves it into an image.
⁴     They dress it up with gold and silver to make it more impressive.
        Then they nail it down so it won’t fall over!
⁵     This is what they worship? The idol just stands there—
        lifeless, powerless like a scarecrow in a cucumber patch.
    It cannot speak. It cannot move. They must pick the thing up and bring it along.
        Do you see why there’s nothing to fear from these dead pieces of wood?
    They cannot harm you, and they cannot help you either.

⁶ O Eternal One, there is no comparison.
    You are great; even Your name is powerful.
⁷ Who wouldn’t worship You? It is only right;
    You are the King of all kingdoms.
The wise and powerful men of all nations in their realms
    are still nothing compared to You.
⁸ They are stupid fools for taking their cues from blocks of wood,
    as if that idol could lead them anywhere.
⁹ Beaten silver from Tarshish, and hammered gold from Uphaz—
    materials made by artisans and goldsmiths—
Draped with royal blue and purple,
    even with the work of craftsmen—still a lifeless object!
¹⁰ Just look at the contrast! The Eternal is the True God:
    He is the living God and eternal King, not some lifeless idol.
The whole earth trembles when He is angry; nations crumble beneath His wrath.

¹² Know whom you’re dealing with!
    God alone is powerful enough to create the earth.
He alone is wise enough to put the world together.
    He alone understands enough to stretch out the heavens.
¹³ His voice thunders through the heavens, and the waters gush from the sky;
    He summons the clouds to build up over the earth.
As the rain falls, the lightning flashes at His command;
    the wind rushes in from where He alone can store it.
¹⁴ All of humanity is stupid and bankrupt of knowledge.
    Those who make idols are shamed by their creations.
What they fashion out of gold are imposters—
    breathless, lifeless frauds.
¹⁵ Their idols are worthless, the work of their hands an embarrassing mockery.
    They are doomed to perish under God’s judgment.
¹⁶ The portion of Jacob, the Eternal One, is not like any of these.
    He was not fashioned out of human hands.
Instead, it is He who made all things and appointed Israel to inherit it all.
    His name is the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies.

¹⁷ Pack up what you have; take what you can from the land.
    You’ll soon be under siege!
¹⁸ The word I have from the Eternal is clear:

Eternal One: Look, I will pitch out these people who live in the land of promise.
        Now is the time for Me to bring hardship on them, so they may be found.

¹⁹ When I think of what is about to happen,
    I can’t begin to express my hurt; the wound is so deep, so painful.
But I keep telling myself,
    “This sickness is mine to bear.”
²⁰ Like a tent, my nation has collapsed, all the ropes cut apart.
    My sons are gone,
And there is no one left to help me put things back together.
    So I am exposed, with no tent and no shelter.
²¹ The shepherds of my people have lost their senses;
    they never thought to ask what the Eternal would have them do.
So now they are in trouble,
    and all their flocks are scattered.
²² Listen! The news we’ve dreaded is finally here:
    Rumblings are being heard in the north; an army is moving into our land.
The villages of Judah will be laid to waste;
    their rubble will be the haunt of jackals.

²³ Jeremiah: O Eternal One, I know our lives are in Your hands.
        It is not in us to direct our own steps—we need You.
²⁴     Discipline me, Eternal One, but do so fairly.
        Hold back Your wrath, or I’ll be destroyed completely.
²⁵     O God, pour out Your wrath on those nations that do not acknowledge You,
        on those peoples who never call on Your name.
    For they have ravaged the land of Jacob and devoured it completely.
        They have made sure nothing is left of our land.

¹⁸ Jeremiah: The Eternal revealed to me the plans of my enemies.
        Then You showed me what they wanted to do.
¹⁹     I was like an unsuspecting lamb led to its slaughter.
        I had no idea they were plotting against me. They were saying,
    “Let’s cut down that lush olive tree and destroy all its beautiful fruit.^[b]
        Let’s cut him off from the land of the living.
    Let’s make sure no one even remembers his name.”
²⁰     But You, Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, You who judge fairly,
        You know the heart and the mind.
    Let me see Your vengeance exacted against them;
        I am entrusting my cause, my future to You.