Jeremiah 9–11

Chapter 9

A Lament over Zion

^11aOh that my head were waters

And my eyes a fountain of tears,

That I might weep day and night

For the slain of the ^bdaughter of my people!

^21aOh that I had in the desert

A wayfarers’ lodging place;

That I might leave my people

And go from them!

For all of them are ^badulterers,

An assembly of ^ctreacherous men.

³“They ^abend their tongue like their bow;

Lies and not truth prevail in the land;

For they ^bproceed from evil to evil,

And they ^cdo not know Me,” declares the Lord.

⁴“Let everyone ^abe on guard against his neighbor,

And ^bdo not trust any brother;

Because every ^cbrother deals ¹craftily,

And every neighbor ^dgoes about as a slanderer.

⁵“Everyone ^adeceives his neighbor

And does not speak the truth,

They have taught their tongue to speak lies;

They ^bweary themselves committing iniquity.

⁶“Your ^adwelling is in the midst of deceit;

Through deceit they ^brefuse to know Me,” declares the Lord.

⁷Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts,

“Behold, I will refine them and ^aassay them;

For ^bwhat else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?

⁸“Their ^atongue is a deadly arrow;

It speaks deceit;

With his mouth one ^bspeaks peace to his neighbor,

But inwardly he ^csets an ambush for him.

⁹“^aShall I not punish them for these things?” declares the Lord.

“On a nation such as this

Shall I not avenge Myself?

¹⁰“For the ^amountains I will take up a weeping and wailing,

And for the pastures of the ^bwilderness a dirge,

Because they are ^claid waste so that no one passes through,

And the lowing of the cattle is not heard;

Both the ^dbirds of the sky and the beasts have fled; they are gone.

¹¹“I will make Jerusalem a ^aheap of ruins,

A haunt of ^bjackals;

And I will make the cities of Judah a ^cdesolation, without inhabitant.”

¹²Who is the ^awise man that may understand this? And who is he to whom ^bthe mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? ^cWhy is the land ruined, laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through?

¹³The Lord said, “Because they have ^aforsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it,

¹⁴but have ^awalked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the ^bBaals, as their ^cfathers taught them,”

¹⁵therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, ^aI will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them ^bpoisoned water to drink.

¹⁶“I will ^ascatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the ^bsword after them until I have annihilated them.”

¹⁷Thus says the Lord of hosts,

“Consider and call for the ^amourning women, that they may come;

And send for the ^1bwailing women, that they may come!

¹⁸“Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us,

That our ^aeyes may shed tears

And our eyelids flow with water.

¹⁹“For a voice of ^awailing is heard from Zion,

‘^bHow are we ruined!

We are put to great shame,

For we have ^cleft the land,

Because they have cast down our dwellings.’ ”

²⁰Now hear the word of the Lord, O you ^awomen,

And let your ear receive the word of His mouth;

Teach your daughters wailing,

And everyone her neighbor a dirge.

²¹For ^adeath has come up through our windows;

It has entered our palaces

To cut off the ^bchildren from the streets,

The young men from the town squares.

²²Speak, “Thus says the Lord,

‘The corpses of men will fall ^alike dung on the open field,

And like the sheaf after the reaper,

But no one will gather them.’ ”

²³Thus says the Lord, “^aLet not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the ^bmighty man boast of his might, let not a ^crich man boast of his riches;

²⁴but let him who boasts ^aboast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who ^bexercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I ^cdelight in these things,” declares the Lord.

²⁵“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet ^auncircumcised—

²⁶Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the sons of Ammon, and Moab and ^aall those inhabiting the desert who clip the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are ^buncircumcised of heart.”

Chapter 10

A Satire on Idolatry

¹Hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel.

²Thus says the Lord,

“^aDo not learn the way of the nations,

And do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens

Although the nations are terrified by them;

³For the customs of the peoples are ^1adelusion;

Because ^bit is wood cut from the forest,

The work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool.

⁴“They ^adecorate it with silver and with gold;

They ^bfasten it with nails and with hammers

So that it will not totter.

⁵“Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they,

And they ^acannot speak;

They must be ^bcarried,

Because they cannot walk!

Do not fear them,

For they ^ccan do no harm,

Nor can they do any good.”

^6aThere is none like You, O Lord;

You are ^bgreat, and great is Your name in might.

^7aWho would not fear You, O ^bKing of the nations?

Indeed it is Your due!

For among all the ^cwise men of the nations

And in all their kingdoms,

There is none like You.

⁸But they are altogether ^astupid and foolish

In their discipline of ¹delusion—²their idol is wood!

⁹Beaten ^asilver is brought from ^bTarshish,

And ^cgold from Uphaz,

The work of a craftsman and of the hands of a goldsmith;

Violet and purple are their clothing;

They are all the ^dwork of skilled men.

¹⁰But the Lord is the ^atrue God;

He is the ^bliving God and the ^ceverlasting King.

At His wrath the ^dearth quakes,

And the nations cannot ^eendure His indignation.

¹¹¹Thus you shall say to them, “The ^agods that did not make the heavens and the earth will ^bperish from the earth and from under the ²heavens.”

¹²It is ^aHe who made the earth by His power,

Who ^bestablished the world by His wisdom;

And by His understanding He has ^cstretched out the heavens.

¹³When He utters His ^avoice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,

And He causes the ^bclouds to ascend from the end of the earth;

He makes lightning for the rain,

And brings out the ^cwind from His storehouses.

¹⁴Every man is ^astupid, devoid of knowledge;

Every goldsmith is put to shame by his ¹idols;

For his molten images are deceitful,

And there is no breath in them.

¹⁵They are ^aworthless, a work of mockery;

In the ^btime of their punishment they will perish.

¹⁶The ^aportion of Jacob is not like these;

For the ^1bMaker of all is He,

And ^cIsrael is the tribe of His inheritance;

The ^dLord of hosts is His name.

^17aPick up your bundle from the ground,

You who dwell under siege!

¹⁸For thus says the Lord,

“Behold, I am ^aslinging out the inhabitants of the land

At this time,

And will cause them distress,

That they may ¹be found.”

^19aWoe is me, because of my ¹injury!

My ^bwound is incurable.

But I said, “Truly this is a sickness,

And I ^cmust bear it.”

²⁰My ^atent is destroyed,

And all my ropes are broken;

My ^bsons have gone from me and are no more.

There is ^cno one to stretch out my tent again

Or to set up my curtains.

²¹For the shepherds have become stupid

And ^ahave not sought the Lord;

Therefore they have not prospered,

And ^ball their flock is scattered.

²²The sound of a ^areport! Behold, it comes—

A great commotion ^bout of the land of the north—

To ^cmake the cities of Judah

A desolation, a haunt of jackals.

²³I know, O Lord, that ^aa man’s way is not in himself,

^bNor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.

^24aCorrect me, O Lord, but with justice;

Not with Your anger, or You will ¹bring me to nothing.

^25aPour out Your wrath on the nations that ^bdo not know You

And on the families that ^cdo not call Your name;

For they have devoured Jacob;

They have ^ddevoured him and consumed him

And have laid waste his ¹habitation.

Chapter 11

The Broken Covenant

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

²“^aHear the words of this ^bcovenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

³and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “^aCursed is the man who does not heed the words of this covenant

⁴which I commanded your forefathers in the ^aday that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the ^biron furnace, saying, ‘^cListen to My voice, and ¹do according to all which I command you; so you shall be ^dMy people, and I will be your God,’

⁵in order to confirm the ^aoath which I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day.” ’ ” Then I said, “^bAmen, O Lord.”

⁶And the Lord said to me, “^aProclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, ‘^bHear the words of this covenant and ^cdo them.

⁷‘For I solemnly ^awarned your fathers in the ^bday that I brought them up from the land of Egypt, even to this day, ^1cwarning persistently, saying, “^dListen to My voice.”

⁸‘Yet they ^adid not obey or incline their ear, but walked, each one, in the stubbornness of his evil heart; therefore I brought on them all the ^bwords of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.’ ”

⁹Then the Lord said to me, “A ^aconspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁰“They have ^aturned back to the iniquities of their ¹ancestors who ^brefused to hear My words, and they ^chave gone after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have ^dbroken My covenant which I made with their fathers.”

¹¹Therefore thus says the Lord, “Behold I am ^abringing disaster on them which they will ^bnot be able to escape; though they will ^ccry to Me, yet I will not listen to them.

¹²“Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will ^ago and cry to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they surely will not save them in the time of their disaster.

¹³“For your gods are ^1aas many as your cities, O Judah; and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to the ^bshameful thing, altars to ^cburn incense to Baal.

¹⁴“Therefore ^ado not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will ^bnot…