Jeremiah 9–11

9TH CHAPTER^a

¹“I wish that my head were ⸤filled with⸥ water 

and my eyes were a fountain of tears 

so that I could cry day and night 

for my dear people who have been killed. 

²I wish I had a place to stay in the desert. 

I would abandon my people and go away from them. 

They are all adulterers, 

a mob of traitors. 

³They use their tongues like bows that shoot arrows. 

Lies and dishonesty rule the land.^b

They go from one evil thing to another, 

and they don’t know me,” declares the Lord. 

⁴“Beware of your neighbors. 

Don’t trust your relatives. 

Every relative cheats. 

Every neighbor goes around slandering. 

⁵Everyone cheats his neighbor. 

No one speaks the truth. 

My people train their tongues to speak lies. 

They wear themselves out doing wrong. 

⁶Oppression follows oppression.^c

Deceit follows deceit. 

They refuse to acknowledge me,” declares the Lord. 

⁷This is what the Lord of Armies says: 

I will now refine them with fire and test them. 

What else can I do for my dear people? 

⁸Their tongues are like deadly arrows. 

They speak deceitfully. 

People speak politely to their neighbors, 

but they think of ways to set traps for them. 

⁹I will punish them for these things, declares the Lord. 

I will punish this nation. 

I still won’t be satisfied. 

¹⁰I will cry and weep for the mountains. 

I will sing a funeral song for the pastures in the wilderness. 

They are destroyed so that no one can travel through them. 

No one can hear the sound of cattle. 

Birds and cattle have fled. 

They are gone. 

¹¹I will turn Jerusalem into a pile of rubble, a home for jackals. 

I will destroy the cities of Judah so that no one can live there. 

¹²No one is wise enough to understand this. 

To whom has the Lord revealed this 

so that they can explain it? 

The land dies; it has been ruined like the desert 

so that no one can travel through it. 

¹³The Lord answered, 

“They’ve abandoned my teachings that I placed in front of them. 

They didn’t obey me, and they didn’t follow them. 

¹⁴They followed their own stubborn ways and other gods—the Baals, 

as their ancestors taught them.” 

¹⁵This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: 

I am going to feed these people bitterness 

and give them poison to drink. 

¹⁶I will scatter them among nations 

that they and their ancestors haven’t heard of. 

I will send armies after them until I’ve wiped them out. 

¹⁷This is what the Lord of Armies says: 

Consider this: 

Call for the women who cry at funerals. 

Send for those who are the most skilled. 

¹⁸They should come quickly and cry for us. 

Our eyes will run with tears. 

Our eyelids will flow with water. 

¹⁹The sound of crying is heard from Zion. 

“We’re ruined! We’re very ashamed. 

We must leave our land because our homes have been torn down.” 

²⁰Listen to the Lord’s word, you women, 

and open your ears to hear his words. 

Teach your daughters how to cry. 

Teach your neighbors funeral songs. 

²¹Death has come through our windows and entered our palaces. 

Death has cut down the children in the streets 

and the young men in the marketplaces. 

²²This is what the Lord says: 

Dead bodies will fall like manure on the field. 

They will be like grain that has been cut but not gathered. 

The Lord Is the Only True God

²³This is what the Lord says: 

Don’t let wise people brag about their wisdom. 

Don’t let strong people brag about their strength. 

Don’t let rich people brag about their riches. 

²⁴If they want to brag, they should brag that they understand and know me. 

They should brag that I, the Lord, act out of love, righteousness, 

and justice on the earth. 

This kind of bragging pleases me, declares the Lord. 

²⁵“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, 

“when I will punish all who are circumcised. 

²⁶I will punish Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, and Moab. 

I will punish all who shave the hair on their foreheads 

or live in the desert. 

Even though these nations are circumcised, 

all Israel has uncircumcised hearts.” 

10TH CHAPTER

¹Listen to the message that the Lord has spoken to you, nation of Israel. ²This is what the Lord says: 

Don’t learn the practices of the nations. 

Don’t be frightened by the signs in the sky 

because the nations are frightened by them. 

³The religion of the people is worthless. 

Woodcutters cut down trees from the forest. 

The hands of craftsmen prepare them with axes. 

⁴Craftsmen decorate them with silver and gold 

and fasten them ⸤together⸥ with hammers and nails 

so that they won’t fall over. 

⁵These trees are like scarecrows in cucumber gardens. 

They aren’t able to speak. 

They have to be carried, because they can’t walk. 

Don’t be afraid of them. 

They can’t harm you. 

They can’t do you any good either. 

⁶No one is like you, O Lord. 

You are great. 

Your name is powerful. 

⁷Everyone fears you, O King of the Nations. 

This is what you deserve. 

No one is like you among all the wise people in the nations 

or in all their kingdoms. 

⁸They are complete idiots. 

They learn nonsense from wooden idols. 

⁹Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz. 

Craftsmen and goldsmiths shape these metals. 

The clothing for the idols is blue and purple, 

all made by skilled workers. 

¹⁰But the Lord is the only God. 

He is the living God and eternal king. 

The earth trembles when he is angry. 

The nations can’t endure his fury. 

¹¹Tell them this: These gods will disappear from the earth 

and from under heaven because they didn’t make heaven and earth. 

¹²The Lord made the earth by his power. 

He set up the world by his skill. 

He stretched out the world by his understanding. 

¹³He speaks, and the water in the sky produces a storm. 

He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. 

He makes lightning flash with the rain. 

He brings wind out of his storehouses. 

¹⁴Everyone is stupid and ignorant. 

Metalsmiths are put to shame by their idols. 

Their statues are false ⸤gods⸥. 

They can’t breathe. 

¹⁵They are worthless jokes. 

When they are punished, they disappear. 

¹⁶Jacob’s God isn’t like them. 

He made everything, 

and Israel is the tribe that belongs to him. 

His name is the Lord of Armies. 

¹⁷Pick up your bags. You are being blockaded. 

¹⁸This is what the Lord says: 

I am going to throw out those who live in the land at this time 

and cause trouble for them so that they will feel it. 

¹⁹Oh, I’m wounded! 

My wound is serious. 

Then I thought that this is my punishment, and I will bear it. 

²⁰My tent is destroyed, and all my ropes are broken. 

My children have left me and have disappeared. 

There’s no one to set up my tent again 

or put up my tent curtains. 

²¹The shepherds are foolish. 

They don’t look to the Lord for help. 

That is why they won’t succeed, 

and all their flocks will be scattered. 

²²The report has arrived. 

A tremendous uproar is coming from the land of the north. 

Its army will destroy Judah’s cities 

and make them homes for jackals. 

²³O Lord, I know that the way humans act is not under their control. 

Humans do not direct their steps as they walk. 

²⁴Correct me, O Lord, but please be fair. 

Don’t correct me when you’re angry. 

Otherwise, you’ll reduce me to nothing. 

²⁵Pour out your fury on the nations who don’t know you 

and on people who don’t worship you. 

They have devoured the descendants of Jacob. 

They have devoured them completely. 

They have destroyed their homes. 

11TH CHAPTER

Judah Has Disobeyed the Terms of the Lord’s Promise

¹This is the message that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah. He said, ²“Listen to the terms of this promise,^aand tell them to the people of Judah and to those who live in Jerusalem. ³Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Cursed is anyone who doesn’t listen to the terms of this promise. ⁴I made this promise to your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, which was an iron smelter. I said, “Obey me, and do everything that I have told you to do. Then you will be my people, and I will be your God. ⁵I will keep the oath I made to your ancestors and give them a land flowing with milk and honey, the land you still have today.” ’ ” 

I answered, “Yes, Lord.” 

⁶The Lord said to me, “Announce all these things in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Listen to the terms of this promise, and keep them. ⁷I solemnly warned your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, and the warning still applies to you today. I solemnly warned them to obey me. ⁸But they didn’t obey me or pay attention to me. They followed their own stubborn, evil ways. So I punished them, because they did not keep all the terms of the promise, the terms that I commanded them to keep.” 

⁹The Lord said to me, “Conspiracy exists among the people of Judah and among those who live in Jerusalem. ¹⁰They’ve gone back to the evil ways of their ancestors and refused to obey my words. They are following other gods and worshiping them. The nations of Israel and Judah have rejected the promise that I made to their ancestors. ¹¹This is what the Lord says: I’m going to bring a disaster on them that they can’t escape. Although they will cry out to me, I won’t listen to them. ¹²Then the cities of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem will cry to the gods to whom they’ve been sacrificing. But these gods will never rescue them when they’re in trouble. ¹³Judah, you have as many gods as you have cities. You have set up many altars ⸤in Jerusalem⸥ to sacrifice to Baal. You have as many altars as there are streets in Jerusalem. ¹⁴Jeremiah, don’t pray for these people. Don’t cry or pray for them. I won’t listen when they call to me for help in times of trouble. 

¹⁵“What right do these people I love have to be in my house 

when they do so many devious things? 

Can the meat from their sacrifices turn disaster away from them? 

They rejoice when they do evil.” 

¹⁶The Lord called you a large olive tree 

that has beautiful fruit to look at. 

He will set fire to you with a mighty storm, 

and your branches will be broken. 

¹⁷The Lord of Armies planted you. 

He has pronounced disaster on you. 

This is because of the evil things 

that Israel and Judah have done. 

They have made him furious by burning incense 

as an offering to Baal. 

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