Jeremiah 6–8

THREATENED SIEGE OF JERUSALEM

6“Run for cover^o out of Jerusalem, Benjaminites.

Sound the trumpet^p in Tekoa;^q

raise a smoke signal^r over Beth-haccherem,^A

for disaster threatens from the north,^s

even a crushing blow.

²Though she is beautiful and delicate,

I will destroy^B Daughter Zion.

³Shepherds and their flocks will come against her;

they will pitch their tents all around her.^t

Each will pasture his own portion.

⁴Set them apart for war^u against her;

rise up, let’s attack at noon.

Woe to us, for the day is passing;

the evening shadows grow long.

⁵Rise up, let’s attack by night.

Let’s destroy her fortresses.”

⁶For this is what the Lord of Armies says:

Cut down the trees;^v

raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem.

This city must be punished.

There is nothing but oppression within her.^w

⁷As a well gushes out its water,

so she pours out her evil.^C

Violence and destruction^x resound in her.

Sickness and wounds keep coming to my attention.

⁸Be warned, Jerusalem,

or I will turn away from you;^y

I will make you a desolation,

a land without inhabitants.^z

WRATH ON ISRAEL

⁹This is what the Lord of Armies says:

Glean the remnant of Israel^aa

as thoroughly as a vine.

Pass your hand once more like a grape gatherer

over the branches.

¹⁰Who can I speak to and give such a warning^D

that they will listen?

Look, their ear is uncircumcised,^Eab

so they cannot pay attention.

See, the word of the Lord has become contemptible to them—

they find no pleasure in it.^ac

¹¹But I am full of the Lord’s wrath;

I am tired of holding it back.^a

Pour it out on the children in the street,^b

on the gathering of young men as well.

For both husband and wife will be captured,

the old with the very old.^F

¹²Their houses will be turned over to others,^c

their fields and wives as well,

for I will stretch out my hand^d

against the inhabitants of the land.

This is the Lord’s declaration.

¹³For from the least to the greatest of them,^e

everyone is making profit dishonestly.^f

From prophet to priest,

everyone deals falsely.^g

¹⁴They have treated my people’s brokenness superficially,

claiming, “Peace, peace,”^h

when there is no peace.

¹⁵Were they ashamed when they acted so detestably?

They weren’t at all ashamed.

They can no longer feel humiliation.ⁱ

Therefore, they will fall among the fallen.

When I punish them, they will collapse,^j

says the Lord.

DISASTER BECAUSE OF DISOBEDIENCE

¹⁶This is what the Lord says:

Stand by the roadways and look.

Ask about the ancient paths,^k

“Which is the way to what is good?”

Then take it

and find rest for yourselves.^l

But they protested, “We won’t!”

¹⁷I appointed watchmen over you^m

and said, “Listen for the sound of the trumpet.”

But they protested, “We won’t listen!”

¹⁸Therefore listen, you nations

and you witnesses,

learn what the charge is against them.

¹⁹Listen, earth!

I am about to bring disaster on these people,

the fruit of their own plotting,ⁿ

for they have paid no attention to my words.

They have rejected my instruction.^o

²⁰What use to me is frankincense from Sheba^p

or sweet cane^q from a distant land?

Your burnt offerings are not acceptable;

your sacrifices do not please me.^r

²¹Therefore, this is what the Lord says:

I am going to place stumbling blocks before these people;

fathers and sons together will stumble over them;^s

friends and neighbors will also perish.

A CRUEL NATION FROM THE NORTH

²²This is what the Lord says:

Look,^t an army is coming from a northern land;^u

a great nation will be stirred up

from the remote regions of the earth.^v

²³They grasp bow and javelin.

They are cruel and show no mercy.^w

Their voice roars like the sea,^x

and they ride on horses,

lined up like men in battle formation

against you, Daughter Zion.

²⁴We have heard about it,

and our hands have become weak.

Distress has seized us—

pain, like a woman in labor.^y

²⁵Don’t go out to the fields;

don’t walk on the road.

For the enemy has a sword;

terror is on every side.^z

²⁶My dear^A people, dress yourselves in sackcloth

and roll in the dust.^aa

Mourn as you would for an only son,^ab

a bitter lament,

for suddenly the destroyer^ac will come on us.^ad

JEREMIAH APPOINTED AS AN EXAMINER

²⁷I have appointed you to be an assayer among my people—

a refiner^B—

so you may know and assay their way of life.^a

²⁸All are stubborn rebels

spreading slander.^b

They are bronze and iron;

all of them are corrupt.^c

²⁹The bellows blow,

blasting the lead with fire.

The refining is completely in vain;

the evil ones are not separated out.

³⁰They are called rejected silver,

for the Lord has rejected them.^d

FALSE TRUST IN THE TEMPLE

7This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²“Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord^e and there call out this word: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the Lord.

³“ ‘This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Correct your ways and your actions,^f and I will allow you to live in this place. ⁴Do not trust deceitful words, chanting, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.” ⁵Instead, if you really correct your ways and your actions, if you act justly toward one another,^{Cg 6}if you no longer oppress the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow^h and no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods, bringing harm on yourselves, ⁷I will allow you to live in this place, the land I gave to your ancestorsⁱ long ago and forever. ⁸But look, you keep trusting in deceitful words that cannot help.

⁹“ ‘Do you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known?^{j 10}Then do you come and stand before me in this house^k that bears my name and say, “We are rescued, so we can continue doing all these detestable acts”? ¹¹Has this house, which bears my name, become a den of robbers^l in your view? Yes, I too have seen it.^m

This is the Lord’s declaration.

SHILOH AS A WARNING

¹²“ ‘But return to my place that was at Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first.ⁿ See what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. ¹³Now, because you have done all these things—this is the Lord’s declaration—and because I have spoken to you time and time again^A but you wouldn’t listen,^o and I have called to you, but you wouldn’t answer,^{p 14}what I did to Shiloh I will do to the house that bears my name,^q the house in which you trust, the place that I gave you and your ancestors. ¹⁵I will banish you from my presence, just as I banished all of your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.’^r

DO NOT PRAY FOR JUDAH

¹⁶“As for you, do not pray for these people.^s Do not offer a cry or a prayer on their behalf, and do not beg me,^t for I will not listen to you.^{u 17}Don’t you see how they behave in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven,^Bv and they pour out drink offerings to other gods so that they provoke me to anger. ¹⁹But are they really provoking me?”^w This is the Lord’s declaration. “Isn’t it they themselves being provoked to disgrace?”

²⁰Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “Look, my anger—my burning wrath—is about to be poured out on this place,^x on people and animals, on the tree of the field, and on the produce of the land. My wrath will burn and not be quenched.”^y

OBEDIENCE OVER SACRIFICE

²¹This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves,^{z 22}for when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them^aa or command them concerning burnt offering and sacrifice. ²³However, I did give them this command: ‘Obey me, and then I will be your God, and you will be my people. Follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you.’^{ab 24}Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention^ac but followed their own advice and their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward.^{ad 25}Since the day your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until today, I have sent all my servants the prophets^ae to you time and time again.^{Caf 26}However, my people wouldn’t listen to me or pay attention but became obstinate;^ag they did more evil than their ancestors.^ah

A LAMENT FOR DISOBEDIENT JUDAH

²⁷“When you speak all these things to them, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer you. ²⁸Therefore, declare to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the Lord their God and would not accept discipline. Truth^D has perished—it has disappeared from their mouths. ²⁹Cut off the hair of your sacred vow^Ea and throw it away. Raise up a dirge on the barren heights,^b for the Lord has rejected and abandoned the generation under his wrath.’^c

³⁰“For the Judeans have done what is evil in my sight.” This is the Lord’s declaration. “They have set up their abhorrent things^d in the house that bears my name in order to defile it.^{e 31}They have built the high places of Topheth^Af in Ben Hinnom Valley^Bg in order to burn their sons and daughters in the fire,^h a thing I did not command; I never entertained the thought.

³²“Therefore, look, the days are coming”ⁱ—the Lord’s declaration—“when this place will no longer be called Topheth and Ben Hinnom Valley, but Slaughter Valley.^j Topheth will become a cemetery,^C because there will be no other burial place. ³³The corpses of these people will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land, with no one to scare them away.^{k 34}I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and gladness and the voices of the groom and the bride,^l for the land will become a desolate waste.^m

DEATH OVER LIFE

8“At that time”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of her officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the residents of Jerusalem will be brought…