Jeremiah 4

Chapter 4

Judah Threatened with Invasion

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

“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 the Lord lives,’

^bIn truth, in justice and in righteousness;

Then the ^cnations will bless themselves in Him,

And ^din Him they will glory.”

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

“^1aBreak up your fallow ground,

And ^bdo not sow among thorns.

⁴“^aCircumcise yourselves to the Lord

And remove the foreskins of your heart,

Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,

Or else My ^bwrath will go forth like fire

And burn with ^cnone to quench it,

Because of the evil of your deeds.”

⁵Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say,

“^aBlow the trumpet in the land;

Cry aloud and say,

‘^bAssemble yourselves, and let us go

Into the fortified cities.’

⁶“Lift up a ^astandard toward Zion!

Seek refuge, 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 waste.

Your cities will be ruins

Without inhabitant.

⁸“For this, ^aput on sackcloth,

Lament and wail;

For the ^bfierce anger of the Lord

Has not turned back from us.”

⁹“It shall come about in that day,” declares the Lord, “that the ^aheart of the king and the heart of the princes will fail; and the priests will be appalled and the ^bprophets will be astounded.”

¹⁰Then I said, “Ah, Lord ¹God! Surely You have utterly ^adeceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘^bYou will have peace’; whereas a sword touches the ²throat.”

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

¹²a wind too strong for ¹this—will come ²at My command; now I will also pronounce 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 ruined!”

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 proclaims wickedness from Mount Ephraim.

¹⁶“Report it to the nations, now!

Proclaim over Jerusalem,

‘Besiegers come from a ^afar country,

And ^blift 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 the Lord.

¹⁸“Your ^aways and your deeds

Have ¹brought these things to you.

This is your evil. How ^bbitter!

How it has touched your heart!”

Lament over Judah’s Devastation

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

My ^bheart is pounding in me;

I cannot be silent,

Because ³you have heard, O my soul,

The ^csound of the trumpet,

The alarm of war.

^20aDisaster on disaster is proclaimed,

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 foolish,

They know Me not;

They are stupid children

And have no understanding.

They are shrewd to ^bdo evil,

But to do good they do not know.”

²³I looked on the earth, and behold, it was ^1a formless and void;

And to the heavens, and they had no light.

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

And all the hills ¹moved to and fro.

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

And all the ^abirds of the heavens had fled.

²⁶I looked, and behold, ¹the ^afruitful land was a wilderness,

And all its cities were pulled down

Before the Lord, before His fierce anger.

²⁷For thus says the Lord,

“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 ¹change My mind, nor will I turn from it.”

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

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

^cEvery city is forsaken,

And no man dwells in them.

³⁰And you, O desolate 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 ¹cry as of a woman in labor,

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

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

^bStretching out her ²hands, saying,

“Ah, woe is me, for ³I faint before murderers.”