Jeremiah 4:19–31

Jeremiah’s Cry

¹⁹Oh, how I hurt! How I hurt!

I am bent over in pain.

Oh, the torture in my heart!

My heart is pounding inside me.

I cannot keep quiet,

because I have heard the sound of the trumpet.

I have heard the shouts of war.

²⁰Disaster follows disaster;

the whole country has been destroyed.

My tents are destroyed in only a moment.

My curtains are torn down quickly.

²¹How long must I look at the war flag?

How long must I listen to the war trumpet?

²²The Lord says, “My people are foolish.

They do not know me.

They are stupid children;

they don’t understand.

They are skillful at doing evil,

but they don’t know how to do good.”

Disaster Is Coming

²³I looked at the earth,

and it was empty and had no shape.

I looked at the sky,

and its light was gone.

²⁴I looked at the mountains,

and they were shaking.

All the hills were trembling.

²⁵I looked, and there were no people.

Every bird in the sky had flown away.

²⁶I looked, and the good, rich land had become a desert.

All its towns had been destroyed

by the Lord and his great anger.

²⁷This is what the Lord says:

“All the land will be ruined,

but I will not completely destroy it.

²⁸So the people in the land will cry loudly,

and the sky will grow dark,

because I have spoken and will not change my mind.

I have made a decision, and I will not change it.”

²⁹At the sound of the horsemen and the archers,

all the people in the towns run away.

They hide in the thick bushes

and climb up into the rocks.

All of the cities of Judah are empty;

no one lives in them.

³⁰Judah, you destroyed nation, what are you doing?

Why do you put on your finest dress

and decorate yourself with gold jewelry?

Why do you put color around your eyes?

You make yourself beautiful, but it is all useless.

Your lovers hate you;

they want to kill you.

³¹I hear a cry like a woman having a baby,

distress like a woman having her first child.

It is the sound of Jerusalem gasping for breath.

She lifts her hands in prayer and says,

“Oh! I am about to faint

before my murderers!”