Jeremiah Laments for and Prays for the Soon-to-be-Judged People

10:17 Gather your belongings together and prepare to leave the land,

you people of Jerusalem36 who are being besieged.37

10:18 For the Lord says, “I will now throw out

those who live in this land.

I will bring so much trouble on them

that they will actually feel it.”38

10:19 And I cried out,39 “We are doomed!40

Our wound is severe!

We once thought, ‘This is only an illness.

And we will be able to bear it!’41

10:20 But our tents have been destroyed.

The ropes that held them in place have been ripped apart.42

Our children are gone and are not coming back.43

There is no survivor to put our tents back up,

no one left to hang their tent curtains in place.

10:21 For our leaders44 are stupid.

They have not sought the Lord’s advice.45

So they do not act wisely,

and the people they are responsible for46 have all been scattered.

10:22 Listen! News is coming even now.47

The rumble of a great army is heard approaching48 from a land in the north.49

It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble,

places where only jackals live.

10:23 Lord, we know that people do not control their own destiny.50

It is not in their power to determine what will happen to them.51

10:24 Correct us, Lord, but only in due measure.52

Do not punish us in anger or you will reduce us to nothing.53

10:25 Vent your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you.54

Vent it on the peoples55 who do not worship you.56

For they have destroyed the people of Jacob.57

They have completely destroyed them58

and left their homeland in utter ruin.