Jeremiah 15:1–9

Four Types of Calamity

15Then Yahweh said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me,^a my heart would not be to this people. Send them away from my sight,^b and let them go out. ²And then^c if they say to you, ‘Where shall we go?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh,

“Those who are destined for the plague, to the plague,

and those who are destined for the sword, to the sword,

and those who are destined for the famine, to the famine,

and those who are destined for the captivity, to the captivity.” ’

³“And I will summon^d over them four types of calamity,” declares^e Yahweh, “the sword to kill, and the dogs to drag away, and the birds^f of the air and the wild animals^g of the earth to devour and to destroy. ⁴And I will make them a terror to all of the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, because of what he did in Jerusalem.

⁵“For who will have compassion on you, O Jerusalem,

or who will show sympathy to you,

or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?^h

⁶You have forsaken me,” declaresⁱ Yahweh.

“You go backward, so I have stretched my hand against you,

and I have destroyed you.

I am tired of becoming remorseful.

⁷And I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land.

I am bereaved.

I have destroyed my people.

They did not turn back from their ways.

⁸Their widows^j will be more numerous before me than the sand of the seas.

I have brought to them, against the mothers^k of young men,^l

a destroyer at noon.

I will suddenly drop on her anguish and horror.^m

⁹She who gave birth to seven has withered away.

She gasps her breath.

Her sun setⁿ while still day.

She has been put to shame and disgraced.

And the remainder of them I will give to the sword

before^o their enemies,” declares^p Yahweh.