Jeremiah 9
9
1I wish that my eyes
were fountains of tears,
so I could cry day and night
for my people
who were killed.
2I wish I could go into the desert
and find a hiding place
from all who are treacherous
and unfaithful to God.
The Lord Answers Jeremiah
3The Lord replied:
Lies come from the mouths
of my people,
like arrows from a bow.
With each dishonest deed
their power increases,
and not one of them will admit
that I am God.
4Jeremiah, all your friends
and relatives
tell lies about you,
so don't trust them.
5They wear themselves out,
always looking for a new way
to cheat their friends.
6Everyone takes advantage
of everyone else,
and no one will admit
that I am God.
7And so I will purify
the hearts of my people
just as gold is purified
in a furnace.
I have no other choice.
8They say they want peace,
but this lie is deadly,
like an arrow that strikes
when you least expect it.
9Give me one good reason
not to punish them
as they deserve.
I, the Lord All-Powerful,
have spoken.
Jeremiah Weeps for His People
10I weep for the pastureland
in the hill country.
It's so barren and scorched
that no one travels there.
No cattle can be found there,
and birds and wild animals
have all disappeared.
11I heard the Lord reply,
“When I am finished,
Jerusalem and the towns of Judah
will be piles of ruins
where only jackals#9.11 jackals: Desert animals related to wolves, but smaller. live.”
Why the Land Was Destroyed
12I said to the Lord, “None of us can understand why the land has become like an uncrossable desert. Won't you explain why?”
13The Lord said:
I destroyed the land because the people disobeyed me and rejected my laws and teachings. 14They were stubborn and worshiped Baal,#9.14 Baal: See the note at 2.23. just as their ancestors did. 15So I, the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, promise them poison to eat and drink.#9.15 poison to eat and drink: Or “bitter disappointment to eat, and tears to drink.” 16I'll scatter them in foreign countries that they and their ancestors have never even heard of. Finally, I will send enemy soldiers to kill every last one of them.
The Women Who Are Paid To Weep
17The Lord All-Powerful said,
“Make arrangements now
for the women who are paid
to weep at funerals,#9.17 women … weep at funerals: Or “the women who weep for Baal”; the god Baal was believed to have died and come back to life, and some women would go to places of worship and weep over the death of Baal.
especially the women
who can cry the loudest.”
18The people answered,
“Let them come quickly
and cry for us,
until our own eyes
are flooded with tears.
19Now those of us on Zion cry,
‘We are ruined!
We can't stand the shame.
Our homes have been destroyed,
and we must leave our land.’
20“We ask you women
to pay attention
to what the Lord says.
We will teach you a funeral song
that you can teach
your daughters and friends:
21‘We were in our fortress,
but death sneaked in
through our windows.
It even struck down
children at play
and our strongest young men.’
22“The Lord has told us
the ground will be covered
with dead bodies,
like ungathered stalks of grain
or manure in a field.”
What the Lord Likes Best
23The Lord says:
Don't brag about your wisdom
or strength or wealth.
24 #
1 Co 1.31; 2 Co 10.17. If you feel you must brag,
then have enough sense
to brag about worshiping me,
the Lord.
What I like best
is showing kindness,
justice, and mercy
to everyone on earth.
25-26Someday I will punish the nations of Egypt, Edom, Ammon, and Moab, and the tribes of the desert.#9.25,26 the tribes of the desert: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. The men of these nations are circumcised, but they don't worship me. And it's the same with you people of Judah. Your bodies are circumcised, but your hearts are unchanged.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 9
9
1How I wish my head was a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears! Then I would weep day and night over all my people who have been killed. 2I wish I had a temporary shelter in the desert—I would give up on my people and leave them, because they're all adulterers, a bunch of traitors! 3Their words are like arrows shot from a bow. Lies win out over the truth throughout the country. They go from one evil thing to the next, forgetting all about me, declares the Lord.
4Everyone, watch out for your friends! Don't even trust your brother! Every brother is deceitful, and every friend slanders other people. 5Everyone betrays their friends; no one tells the truth. They've made themselves into expert liars; they tire themselves out doing wrong. 6Everyone exploits each other, and in all their lies they don't want to know me, declares the Lord.
7So this is what the Lord Almighty says: Look, I'm going to test them and purify them like metal in a furnace. What else can I do because of what my people have done? 8Their words are arrows that kill; they always tell lies. They're nice to their friends on the outside while plotting against them inside. 9Shouldn't I punish them for all this? declares the Lord. Shouldn't I retaliate for what this nation has done?
10I will weep and wail for the mountains, I will sing a funeral song over the pastures in the countryside, because they have been so badly burned that no one can pass through, and there are no cattle to make any noise. The birds have flown and the wild animals have run away.
11I'm going to make Jerusalem into a heap of rubble, a place where jackals live. I will destroy the towns of Judah, leaving them empty. 12Who is wise enough to understand this? Has the Lord told anyone so they can explain what's happened? Why has the land been destroyed and burned so it's like a desert, so no one can pass through it?
13The Lord replied, It's because they have given up keeping my laws that I placed before them. They haven't followed them; they haven't done what I told them. 14On the contrary, they have followed their own stubborn way of thinking, and went to worship the Baals, just as their forefathers taught them.
15So this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Watch out! I will give these people wormwood to eat and poisoned water to drink. 16I'm about to scatter them among nations unfamiliar to them and their forefathers, and I will send enemies with swords to chase after them until I have wiped them out.
17This is what the Lord Almighty says: Be aware of what's happening! Call for the professional women mourners, ask for the best of them. 18Have them come as quickly as possible, and sing a funeral song about us, so we can cry our eyes out, so our tears will flow like streams.
19The sound of weeping comes from Zion, “We're completely devastated! We're totally ashamed, because we've had to abandon our country, because our houses have been demolished.”
20Women, listen to the Lord's message, hear what he has to say. Teach your daughters to mourn and sing songs of sadness. 21Death has slipped in through our windows; it has come into our fortresses. It has killed the children playing in the streets and the young people gathering in the town squares.
22Tell everyone this is what the Lord says: Dead bodies will be left where they fall like manure in the fields, lying there like stalks of freshly-cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to collect them.
23This is what the Lord says: The wise shouldn't boast about their wisdom. The strong shouldn't boast about their strength. The rich shouldn't boast about their riches. 24Anyone who wants to boast should boast that they really know and understand me, recognizing that I am the Lord who acts with trustworthy love, who shows fairness, and who does what is right everywhere on earth, because these mean the most to me, declares the Lord.
25Watch out, for the time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all who are only physically circumcised. 26Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and all the desert people who trim their hair on the sides of their heads—all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the Israelites are spiritually uncircumcised.
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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com