Jeremiah 4

CHAPTER 4

Yahweh Calls Israel to Return to Him

¹“If you will ^areturn, O Israel,” declares Yahweh,

“Then you should return to Me.

And ^bif you will put away your detested things from My presence

And will not waver

²And you will ^aswear, ‘As Yahweh lives,’

^bIn truth, in justice, and in righteousness;

Then the ^cnations will ¹be blessed in Him,

And ^din Him they will boast.”

³For thus says Yahweh to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem,

“^1aBreak up your fallow ground,

And ^bdo not sow among thorns.

⁴“^aCircumcise yourselves to Yahweh

And remove the foreskins of your heart,

Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,

Lest My ^bwrath go forth like fire

And burn with ^cnone to quench it

Because of the evil of your deeds.”

Evil from the North

⁵Declare in Judah and make it heard in Jerusalem and say,

“^aBlow the trumpet in the land;

Call out, make your voice full, and say,

‘^bGather yourselves, and let us go

Into the fortified cities.’

⁶“Lift up a ^astandard toward Zion!

Seek safety, do not stand still,

For I am bringing ^bevil from the north,

And great destruction.

⁷“A ^alion has gone up from his thicket,

And a ^bdestroyer of nations has set out;

He has gone out from his place

To ^cmake your land a desolation.

Your cities will be turned into ruins

Without inhabitant.

⁸“For this, ^aI gird myself with sackcloth,

Lament and wail;

For the ^bburning anger of Yahweh

Has not turned back from us.”

⁹“It will be in that day,” declares Yahweh, “that the ^aheart of the king and the heart of the princes will perish; and the priests will be appalled, and the ^bprophets will be astonished.”

¹⁰Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Surely You have utterly ^adeceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘^bYou will have peace’; whereas a sword touches the ¹throat.”

¹¹In that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A ^1ascorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness along the way of the daughter of My people—not to winnow and not to cleanse,

¹²a wind too full for these things—will come ¹for My purpose; now I will also speak judgments against them.

¹³“Behold, he ^agoes up like clouds,

And his ^bchariots like the whirlwind;

His horses are ^cswifter than eagles.

Woe to us, for ^dwe are devastated!”

¹⁴Wash your heart from evil, O Jerusalem,

That you may be saved.

How long will your ^awicked thoughts

Lodge within you?

¹⁵For a voice declares from ^aDan,

And makes wickedness heard from Mount Ephraim.

¹⁶“Make mention of it to the nations, saying, ‘Behold!’

Make it heard over Jerusalem,

‘Besiegers come from a ^afar country,

And ^bgive forth their voices against the cities of Judah.

¹⁷‘Like watchmen of a field they are ^aagainst her round about

Because she has ^brebelled against Me,’ declares Yahweh.

¹⁸“Your ^aways and your deeds

Have done these things to you.

This is your evil. How ^bbitter!

How it has touched your heart!”

Anguish over Judah’s Desolation

^19aMy ¹soul, my ²soul! I am in anguish! ³Oh, my heart!

My ^bheart is pounding in me;

I cannot be silent

Because ⁴you have heard, O my soul,

The ^csound of the trumpet,

The shout of war.

^20aDestruction upon destruction is called out,

For the ^bwhole land is devastated;

Suddenly my ^ctents are devastated,

My curtains in an instant.

²¹How long must I see the standard

And hear the sound of the trumpet?

²²“^aFor My people are ignorant fools,

They know Me not;

They are simpleminded children

And have no understanding.

They are wise to ^bdo evil,

But to do good they do not know.”

²³I saw on the earth, and behold, it was ^1aformless and void;

And to the heavens, and they had no light.

²⁴I saw on the mountains, and behold, they were ^aquaking,

And all the hills ¹moved to and fro.

²⁵I saw, and behold, there was no man,

And all the ^abirds of the sky had fled.

²⁶I saw, and behold, ¹the ^afruitful orchard was a wilderness,

And all its cities were torn down

Before Yahweh, before His burning anger.

²⁷For thus says Yahweh,

“The ^awhole land shall be a desolation,

Yet I will ^bnot execute a complete destruction.

²⁸“For this the ^aearth shall mourn

And the ^bheavens above be dark

Because I have ^cspoken; I have purposed,

And I will not ¹relent, nor will I turn from it.”

²⁹At the sound of the horseman and bowman ^aevery city flees;

They ^bgo into the thickets and climb up among the rocks;

^cEvery city is forsaken,

And no man inhabits them.

³⁰And you, O devastated one, ^awhat will you do?

Although you dress in scarlet,

Although you decorate yourself with ornaments of gold,

Although you ^benlarge your eyes with paint,

In vain you make yourself beautiful.

Your ^1clovers despise you;

They seek your life.

³¹For I heard a sound as of a woman in labor pains,

The distress as of one giving birth to her first child,

The sound of the daughter of Zion ^agasping for breath,

^bStretching out her ¹hands, saying,

“Ah, woe is me, for my soul faints before murderers.”