Jeremiah 6–8

Chapter 6

Destruction of Jerusalem Impending

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,

And a great destruction.

²“The comely and ^adainty one, ^bthe daughter of Zion, I will cut off.

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

They will ^bpitch their tents ¹around her,

They will pasture each in his ²place.

⁴“^1aPrepare war against her;

Arise, and let us ²attack at ^bnoon.

Woe to us, for the day declines,

For the shadows of the evening lengthen!

⁵“Arise, and let us ¹attack by night

And ^adestroy her ²palaces!”

⁶For thus says the Lord 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“^aAs a well ¹keeps its waters fresh,

So she keeps fresh her wickedness.

^bViolence and destruction are heard in her;

^cSickness and wounds are ever before Me.

⁸“^aBe warned, O Jerusalem,

Or ^1bI shall be alienated from you,

And make you a desolation,

A land not inhabited.”

⁹Thus says the Lord 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 ¹closed

And they cannot listen.

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

They have no delight in it.

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

I am ^bweary with holding it in.

“^cPour it out on the children in the street

And on the ¹gathering of young men together;

For both husband and wife shall be taken,

The aged ²and the very old.

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 the Lord.

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 ¹deals falsely.

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 blush.

Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;

At the time that I punish them,

They shall be cast down,” says the Lord.

¹⁶Thus says the Lord,

“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,

‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’

But they said, ‘We will not listen.’

¹⁸“Therefore hear, O nations,

And know, O congregation, what is among them.

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

The ^bfruit of their ¹plans,

Because they have not listened 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 the Lord,

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

And they will stumble against them,

^bFathers and sons together;

Neighbor and ²friend will perish.”

The Enemy from the North

²²Thus says the Lord,

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

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

²³“They seize ^abow and spear;

They are ^bcruel and have no mercy;

Their voice ^croars like the sea,

And they ride on horses,

Arrayed as a man for the battle

Against you, O daughter of Zion!”

²⁴We have ^aheard the report of it;

Our hands are limp.

^bAnguish has seized 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, ^aput on 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 an assayer and a tester among My people,

That you may know and assay their way.”

²⁸All of them are stubbornly rebellious,

^aGoing about as a talebearer.

They are ^bbronze and iron;

They, all of them, are corrupt.

²⁹The bellows blow fiercely,

The lead is consumed by the fire;

In vain the refining goes on,

But the ^awicked are not ¹separated.

^30aThey call them rejected silver,

Because the ^bLord has rejected them.

Chapter 7

Message at the Temple Gate

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

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

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

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

⁵“For ^aif you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly ^bpractice justice between a man and his neighbor,

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

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 ^adeceptive words to no avail.

⁹“Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and ^1aoffer sacrifices 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 ^bden of robbers in your sight? Behold, ^cI, even I, have seen it,” declares the Lord.

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 wickedness of My people Israel.

¹³“And now, because you have done all these things,” declares the Lord, “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 sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the ¹offspring of ^bEphraim.

¹⁶“As for you, ^ado not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you.

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

¹⁸“The ¹children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, 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 ^bspite Me.

¹⁹“^aDo they spite Me?” declares the Lord. “Is it not themselves they spite, to ¹their own ^bshame?”

²⁰Therefore thus says the Lord ¹God, “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 the Lord 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, ‘^aObey My voice, and ^bI will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may ^cbe well with you.’

²⁴“Yet they ^adid not obey 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 servants the prophets, daily rising 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 obey the voice of the Lord their God or accept correction; ^1btruth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.

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

And ^btake up a lamentation on the bare heights;

For the Lord has ^crejected and forsaken

The generation of His wrath.’

³⁰“For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight,” declares the Lord, “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 into My ¹mind.

³²“^aTherefore, behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “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 ruin.

Chapter 8

The Sin and Treachery of Judah

¹“At that time,” declares the Lord, “they will ^abring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves.

²“They will spread them out to the sun,…