Jeremiah 6–8

¹Strengthen yourselves, sons of Benjamin, From the midst of Jerusalem, And in Tekoa blow ye a trumpet, And over Beth-Haccerem lift ye up a flame, For evil hath been seen from the north, And great destruction. ²The comely and the delicate one I have cut off, The daughter of Zion. ³Unto her come do shepherds and their droves, They have stricken tents by her round about, They have fed each in his own station. ⁴Sanctify ye against her the battle, Rise, and we go up at noon. Woe to us, for turned hath the day, For stretched out are the shades of evening, ⁵‘Rise, and we go up by night, And we destroy her palaces.’ ⁶For thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Cut down her wood, And pour out against Jerusalem a mount, She is the city to be inspected, Wholly—she is oppression in her midst. ⁷As the digging of a well, is for its waters, So she hath digged for her wickedness, Violence and spoil is heard in her, Before My face continually are sickness and smiting. ⁸Be instructed, O Jerusalem, Lest My soul be alienated from thee, Lest I make thee a desolation, a land not inhabited.

⁹Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: They surely glean, as a vine, the remnant of Israel, Put back thy hand, as a gatherer to the baskets. ¹⁰To whom do I speak, and testify, and they hear? Lo, their ear is uncircumcised, And they are not able to attend. Lo, a word of Jehovah hath been to them for a reproach, They delight not in it. ¹¹And with the fury of Jehovah I have been filled, (I have been weary of containing,) To pour it on the suckling in the street, And on the assembly of youths together, For even husband with wife are captured, An elder with one full of days, ¹²And their houses have been turned to others, Fields and wives together, For I stretch out My hand against the inhabitants of the land, An affirmation of Jehovah. ¹³For from their least unto their greatest, Every one is gaining dishonest gain, And from prophet even unto priest, Every one is dealing falsely, ¹⁴And they heal the breach of the daughter of my people slightly, Saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ and there is no peace. ¹⁵They were ashamed when they did abomination! Yea, they are not at all ashamed, Yea, blushing they have not known, Therefore they do fall among those falling, In the time I have inspected them, They stumble, said Jehovah. ¹⁶Thus said Jehovah: Stand ye by the ways and see, and ask for paths of old, Where is this—the good way? and go ye in it, And find rest for yourselves. And they say, ‘We do not go.’ ¹⁷And I have raised up for you watchmen, Attend ye to the voice of the trumpet. And they say, ‘We do not attend.’

¹⁸Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O company, That which is upon them. ¹⁹Hear, O earth, lo, I am bringing evil on this people, The fruit of their devices, For to My words they gave no attention, And My law—they kick against it. ²⁰Why is this to Me? frankincense from Sheba cometh, And the sweet cane from a land afar off, Your burnt-offerings are not for acceptance, And your sacrifices have not been sweet to Me. ²¹Therefore thus said Jehovah: Lo, I do give to this people stumbling blocks, And stumbled against them have fathers and sons together, The neighbour and his friend do perish. ²²Thus said Jehovah: Lo, a people hath come from a north country, And a great nation is stirred up from the sides of the earth. ²³Bow and javelin they take hold of, Fierce it is, and they have no mercy, Their voice as a sea doth sound, And on horses they ride, set in array as a man of war, Against thee, O daughter of Zion. ²⁴‘We have heard its sound, feeble have been our hands, Distress hath seized us, pain as of a travailing woman. ²⁵Go not forth to the field, And in the way walk not, For a sword hath the enemy, fear is round about. ²⁶O daughter of My people, Gird on sackcloth, and roll thyself in ashes, The mourning of an only one make for thee, A lamentation most bitter, For suddenly come doth the spoiler against us. ²⁷A watch-tower I have given thee, Among My people a fortress, And thou knowest, and hast tried their way. ²⁸All of them are turned aside by apostates, Walking slanderously—brass and iron, All of them are corrupters. ²⁹The bellows have been burnt, By fire hath the lead been consumed, In vain hath a refiner refined, And the wicked have not been drawn away.

³⁰‘Silver rejected,’ they have called to them, For Jehovah hath kicked against them!

Chapter 7

¹The word that hath been unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, ²Stand in the gate of the house of Jehovah, and thou hast proclaimed there this word, and hast said, Hear a word of Jehovah, all ye of Judah, who are coming in at these gates, to bow before Jehovah: ³Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel, Amend your ways, and your doings, And I cause you to dwell in this place. ⁴Do not trust for yourselves Unto the words of falsehood, saying, The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, The temple of Jehovah are they! ⁵For, if ye do thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, If ye do judgment thoroughly Between a man and his neighbour, ⁶Sojourner, fatherless, and widow, ye oppress not, And innocent blood do not shed in this place, And after other gods do not walk, for evil to yourselves, ⁷Then I have caused you to dwell in this place, In the land that I gave to your fathers, From age even unto age. ⁸Lo, ye are trusting for yourselves On the words of falsehood, so as not to profit. ⁹Stealing, murdering, and committing adultery, And swearing to falsehood, and giving perfume to Baal, And going after other gods whom ye knew not. ¹⁰And ye have come in and stood before Me, In this house on which My name is called, And have said, ‘We have been delivered,’ In order to do all these abominations. ¹¹A den of burglars hath this house, On which My name is called, been in your eyes? Even I, lo, I have seen, an affirmation of Jehovah. ¹²But go ye, I pray you, Unto My place that is in Shiloh, Where I caused My name to dwell at first, And see that which I have done to it, For the wickedness of My people Israel. ¹³And now, because of your doing all these works, An affirmation of Jehovah, And I speak unto you, rising early and speaking, And ye have not hearkened, And I call you, and ye have not answered, ¹⁴I also to the house on which My name is called, In which ye are trusting, And to the place that I gave to you, and to your fathers, Have done, as I have done to Shiloh. ¹⁵And I have cast you from before My face, As I have cast out all your brethren, The whole seed of Ephraim.

¹⁶And thou dost not pray for this people, Nor lift up for them crying and prayer, Nor intercede with Me, for I hear thee not. ¹⁷Art thou not seeing what they are doing In cities of Judah, and in streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸The sons are gathering wood, And the fathers are causing the fire to burn, And the women are kneading dough, To make cakes to the queen of the heavens, And to pour out libations to other gods, So as to provoke Me to anger. ¹⁹Me are they provoking to anger? an affirmation of Jehovah, Is it not themselves, For the shame of their own faces? ²⁰Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah, Lo, Mine anger and My fury is poured out on this place, On man, and beast, and on tree of the field, And on fruit of the ground, And it hath burned, and it is not quenched.

²¹Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel, Your burnt-offerings add to your sacrifices, And eat ye flesh. ²²For I did not speak with your fathers, Nor did I command them in the day of My bringing them out of the land of Egypt, Concerning the matters of burnt-offering and sacrifice, ²³But this thing I commanded them, saying: Hearken to My voice, And I have been to you for God, And ye—ye are to Me for a people, And have walked in all the way that I command you, So that it is well for you. ²⁴And they have not hearkened, nor inclined their ear, And they walk in the counsels, In the stubbornness, of their evil heart, And are for backward, and not for forward. ²⁵Even from the day when your fathers Went out of the land of Egypt till this day, I send to you all my servants the prophets, Daily rising early and sending, ²⁶And they have not hearkened unto Me, Nor inclined their ear, and harden their neck, They have done evil above their fathers. ²⁷And thou hast spoken unto them all these words, And they do not hearken to thee, And thou hast called unto them, And they do not answer thee. ²⁸And thou hast said unto them: This is the nation that hath not hearkened, To the voice of Jehovah its God, Nor have they accepted instruction, Perished hath stedfastness, Yea, it hath been cut off from their mouth.

²⁹Cut off thy crown, and cast it away, And lift up on high places lamentation, For Jehovah hath rejected, And He leaveth the generation of His wrath. ³⁰For the sons of Judah Have done the evil thing in Mine eyes, An affirmation of Jehovah, They have set their abominations in the house On which My name is called—to defile it, ³¹And have built the high places of Tophet, That are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, To burn their sons and their daughters with fire, Which I did not command, Nor did it come up on My heart. ³²Therefore, lo, days are coming, An affirmation of Jehovah, And it is not said any more, ‘The Tophet,’ And ‘Valley of the son of Hinnom,’ But ‘Valley of the slaughter,’ And they have buried in Tophet—without place. ³³And the carcase of this people hath been for food To a fowl of the heavens, and to a beast of the earth, And there is none troubling. ³⁴And I have caused to cease from cities of Judah, And from streets of Jerusalem, The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, Voice of bridegroom, and voice of bride, For the land doth become a desolation!

Chapter 8

¹At that time, an affirmation of Jehovah, They bring 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 inhabitants of Jerusalem, Out of their graves, ²And have spread them to sun, and to moon, And to all the host of the heavens, that they have loved, And that they have served, And that…