Jeremiah 6
6
A warning for the people of Jerusalem
The LORD said:
1Run for your lives,
people of Benjamin.
Get out of Jerusalem.
Sound a trumpet in Tekoa
and light a signal fire
in Beth-Haccherem.
Soon you will be struck
by disaster from the north.
2-3Jerusalem is a lovely pasture,
but shepherds will surround it
and divide it up,
then let their flocks
eat all the grass.#6.2,3 Jerusalem…grass: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
4Kings will tell their troops,
“If we reach Jerusalem
in the morning,
we'll attack at midday.
But if we arrive later,
5we'll attack after dark
and destroy its fortresses.”
6I am the LORD All-Powerful,
and I will command these armies
to chop down trees
and build a ramp up to the walls
of Jerusalem.
People of Jerusalem,
I must punish you
for your injustice.
7Evil pours from your city
like water from a spring.
Sounds of violent crimes
echo within your walls;
victims are everywhere,
wounded and dying.
8Listen to me,
you people of Jerusalem
and Judah.
I will abandon you,
and your land will become
an empty desert.
9I will tell your enemies
to leave your nation bare
like a vine stripped of grapes.
I, the LORD All-Powerful,
have spoken.
Jeremiah's anger
10I have told the people
that you, LORD,
will punish them,
but they just laugh
and refuse to listen.
11Your anger against Judah
flames up inside me,
and I can't hold it in
much longer.
The LORD's anger will sweep everyone away
The LORD answered:
Don't hold back my anger!
Let it sweep away everyone—
the children at play
and all adults,
young and old alike.
12I'll punish the people of Judah#Jr 8.10-12.
and give to others
their houses and fields,
as well as their wives.
I, the LORD, have spoken.
13Everyone is greedy and dishonest,
whether poor or rich.
Even the prophets and priests
cannot be trusted.
14All they ever offer#Ez 13.10.
to my deeply wounded people
are empty hopes for peace.
15They should be ashamed
of their disgusting sins,
but they don't even blush.
And so, when I punish Judah,
they will end up on the ground,
dead like everyone else.
I, the LORD, have spoken.
The people of Judah rejected God's way of life
16The LORD said:
My people, when you stood
at the crossroads,
I told you, “Follow the road
your ancestors took,
and you will find peace.”
But you refused.
17I also sent prophets
to warn you of danger,
but when they sounded the alarm,
you paid no attention.
18-19So I tell all nations on earth,
“Watch what I will do!
My people ignored me
and rejected my laws.
They planned to do evil,
and now the evil they planned
will happen to them.”
20People of Judah,
you bring me incense from Sheba
and spices from distant lands.
You offer sacrifices of all kinds.
But why bother?
I hate these gifts of yours!
21So I will put stumbling blocks
in your path,
and everyone will die,
including parents and children,
neighbours and friends.
An army from the north
22The LORD said,
“Look towards the north,
where a powerful nation
has prepared for war.
23Its well armed troops are cruel
and never show mercy.
Their galloping horses sound
like ocean waves
pounding on the shore.
This army will attack you,
lovely Jerusalem.”
24Then the people said,
“Just hearing about them
makes us tremble with fear,
and we twist and turn in pain
like a woman giving birth.”
25The LORD said,
“Don't work in your fields
or walk along the roads.
It's too dangerous.
The enemy is well armed
26and attacks without warning.
So mourn, my people, as though
your only child had died.
Wear clothes made of sackcloth#6.26 sackcloth: See the note at 4.8.
and roll in the ash heap.”
The LORD's people must be tested
The LORD said:
27Jeremiah, test my people
as though they were metal.
28And you'll find they are hard
like bronze and iron.
They are stubborn rebels,
always spreading lies.
29-30Silver can be purified
in a fiery furnace,
but my people are too wicked
to be made pure,
and so I have rejected them.
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© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012
Jeremiah 6
6
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!
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