Jeremiah 6–8

CHAPTER 6

Yahweh Disciplines Israel

¹“Flee for safety, O sons of ^aBenjamin,

From the midst of Jerusalem!

Now blow a trumpet in Tekoa

And raise a signal over ^1bBeth-haccerem,

For evil looks down from the ^cnorth,

As well as great destruction.

²“The comely and ^adelicate one, ^bthe daughter of Zion, I will ruin.

³“^aShepherds and their flocks will come to her;

They will ^bpitch their tents ¹around her;

They will pasture each in his ²place.

⁴“^aSet yourselves apart for war against her;

Arise, and let us go up at ^bnoon.

Woe to us, for the day declines,

For the shadows of the evening stretch out!

⁵“Arise, and let us go up by night

And ^1adestroy her ²palaces!”

⁶For thus says Yahweh of hosts,

“^aCut down her trees

And cast up a ^bsiege against Jerusalem.

This is the city to be punished,

In whose midst there is only ^coppression.

⁷“^aLike a well ¹keeps its waters fresh,

So she ²keeps fresh her evil.

^bViolence and devastation are heard in her;

^cSickness and wounds are continually before Me.

⁸“^aHeed discipline, O Jerusalem,

Lest ^bMy soul become disgusted at you,

Lest I make you a desolation,

A land not inhabited.”

⁹Thus says Yahweh of hosts,

“They will ^athoroughly glean as the vine the ^bremnant of Israel;

Pass your hand again like a grape gatherer

Over the branches.”

¹⁰To whom shall I speak and give warning

That they may hear?

Behold, their ^aears are uncircumcised,

And they cannot give heed.

Behold, ^bthe word of Yahweh has become a reproach to them;

They have no delight in it.

¹¹But I am ^afull of the wrath of Yahweh;

I am ^bweary of holding it in.

“^cPour it out on the infants in the street

And on the ¹gathering of choice men together;

For both husband and wife shall be captured,

The aged with the one full of days.

¹²“Their ^ahouses shall be turned over to others,

Their fields and their wives together,

For I will ^bstretch out My hand

Against the inhabitants of the land,” declares Yahweh.

¹³“For ^afrom the least of them even to the greatest of them,

Everyone is ^bgreedy for gain,

And from the prophet even to the priest

Everyone practices lying.

¹⁴“They have ^ahealed the brokenness of My people superficially,

Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’

But there is no peace.

¹⁵“Were they ^aashamed because of the abomination they have done?

They were not even ashamed at all;

They did not even know how to feel dishonor.

Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;

At the time that I punish them,

They shall be cast down,” says Yahweh.

¹⁶Thus says Yahweh,

“Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ^aancient paths,

Where the good way is, and walk in it;

And ^byou will find rest for your souls.

But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

¹⁷“And I set ^awatchmen over you, saying,

‘Give heed to the sound of the trumpet!’

But they said, ‘We will not give heed.’

¹⁸“Therefore hear, O nations,

And know, O congregation, what is among them.

¹⁹“^aHear, O earth: behold, I am bringing evil on this people,

The ^bfruit of their ¹plans,

Because they have not given heed to My words,

And as for My law, they have ^crejected it also.

²⁰“^aFor what purpose does ^bfrankincense come to Me from Sheba

And the ^1csweet cane from a distant land?

^dYour burnt offerings are not acceptable,

And your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.”

²¹Therefore, thus says Yahweh,

“Behold, ^aI am ¹laying stumbling blocks before this people.

And they will stumble against them,

^bFathers and sons together;

Neighbor and ²friend will perish.”

Mourn the Coming Destroyer

²²Thus says Yahweh,

“Behold, ^aa people is coming from the land of the north,

And a great nation will be aroused from the ^bremote parts of the earth.

²³“They take hold of ^abow and spear;

They are ^bcruel and have no compassion;

Their voice ^croars like the sea,

And they ride on horses,

Arranged as a man for the battle

Against you, O daughter of Zion!”

²⁴We have ^aheard the report of it;

Our hands are limp.

^bDistress has taken hold of us,

Pain as of a woman in childbirth.

^25aDo not go out into the field

And ^bdo not walk on the road,

For the enemy has a sword;

^cTerror is on every side.

²⁶O daughter of my people, ^agird yourself with sackcloth

And ^broll in ashes;

^1cMourn as for an only son,

A lamentation most bitter.

For suddenly the destroyer

Will come upon us.

²⁷“I have ^amade you a tester of metals and ¹an assayer among My people,

That you may know and test their way.”

²⁸All of them are rebelliously stubborn,

^aGoing about as a slanderer.

They are ^bbronze and iron;

They, all of them, are corrupt.

²⁹The bellows blow fiercely;

The lead ¹is consumed by the fire;

In vain the refining goes on,

But the ^aevil ones are not ²separated.

^30aThey call them rejected silver

Because ^bYahweh has rejected them.

CHAPTER 7

Yahweh’s Warning from the Temple Gate

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

²“^aStand in the gate of the house of Yahweh, and you shall call out there this word, and you shall say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship Yahweh!’”

³Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “^aMake your ways and your deeds good, and I will let you dwell in this place.

⁴“^aDo not trust in lying words, saying, ‘¹This is the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh.’

⁵“For ^aif you truly make your ways and your deeds good, if you truly ^bdo justice between a man and his neighbor,

⁶if you do not oppress the sojourner, the ^1aorphan, or the widow, and do not shed ^binnocent blood in this place, nor ^cwalk after other gods to your own evil demise,

⁷then I will let you ^adwell in this place, in the ^bland that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

⁸“Behold, you are trusting in ^alying words to no avail.

⁹“Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear while lying, and ^aburn incense to Baal and walk after ^bother gods that you have not known,

¹⁰then ^acome and stand before Me in ^bthis house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—that you may do all these abominations?

¹¹“Has ^athis house, which is called by My name, become a ^brobbers’ den in your sight? Behold, ^cI, even I, have seen it,” declares Yahweh.

¹²“But go now to My place which was in ^aShiloh, where I ^bmade My name dwell at the first, and ^csee what I did to it because of the evil of My people Israel.

¹³“And now, because you have done all these works,” declares Yahweh, “and I spoke to you, ^arising up early and ^bspeaking, but you did not hear, and I ^ccalled you but you did not answer,

¹⁴therefore, I will do to the ^ahouse which is called by My name, ^bin which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, as I ^cdid to Shiloh.

¹⁵“I will ^acast you out of My presence, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the seed of ^bEphraim.

¹⁶“As for you, ^ado not pray for this people and do not lift up a cry of lamentation or prayer for them and do not intercede with Me, for I am not hearing you.

¹⁷“Are you not seeing what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁸“The ¹children gather wood, and the fathers make the fire burn, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they ^apour out drink offerings to other gods in order to ^bprovoke Me.

¹⁹“^aDo they provoke Me?” declares Yahweh. “Is it not themselves they provoke to the ^bshame of their own face?”

²⁰Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, My ^aanger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast and on the ^btrees of the field and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched.”

²¹Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Add your ^aburnt offerings to your sacrifices and ^beat flesh.

²²“For I did not ^aspeak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.

²³“But this is ¹what I commanded them, saying, ‘^aListen to My voice, and ^bI will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in the entire way which I command you, that it may ^cbe well with you.’

²⁴“Yet they ^adid not listen or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart and ^1bwent backward and not forward.

²⁵“Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have ^asent you all My slaves the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.

²⁶“Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but ^astiffened their neck; they ^bdid more evil than their fathers.

²⁷“You shall ^aspeak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will ^bnot answer you.

²⁸“You shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that ^adid not listen to the voice of Yahweh their God or receive discipline; ^1btruth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.

²⁹‘^aCut off ¹your hair and cast it away,

And ^blift up a funeral lamentation on the bare heights;

For Yahweh has ^crejected and abandoned

The generation of His wrath.’

³⁰“For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight,” declares Yahweh, “they have ^aset their detestable things in the house, which is called by My name, to defile it.

³¹“They have ^abuilt the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to ^bburn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I ^cdid not command, and it did not come upon My heart.

³²“^aTherefore, behold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when it will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of the Slaughter; for they will ^bbury in Topheth ¹because there is no other place.

³³“The ^adead bodies 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 make to ^acease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the ^bland will become a waste place.

CHAPTER 8

The Faithlessness of Jerusalem

¹“At that time,” declares Yahweh, “they will ^abring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of its princes, and the…