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.
2Jerusalem is a lovely pasture,
3but shepherds will surround it
and divided 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 noon.
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 injustice and violence
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.
12 #
Jr 8.10-12. I'll punish the people of Judah
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.
14 #
Ez 13.10. All they ever offer
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.
18So I tell all nations on earth,
“Watch what I will do!
19My 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,
neighbors and friends.
An Army from the North
22The Lord said,
“Look toward 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 pile.”
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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Jeremiah 6: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 6
6
Siege of Jerusalem
1#Ne 3:14; Jdg 1:21 O sons of Benjamin, gather yourselves
to flee from the midst of Jerusalem,
and blow the trumpet in Tekoa,
and set up a sign of fire in Beth Hakkerem;
for disaster appears out of the north,
and great destruction.
2#Isa 1:8; Jer 4:31 I have likened the daughter of Zion
to a comely and delicate woman.
3#Lk 19:43 The shepherds with their flocks will come to her.
They will pitch their tents against her all around.
They will pasture each in his place.
4#Jer 15:8; Joel 3:9 “Prepare war against her;
arise, and let us go up at noon.”
“Woe to us, for the day declines,
for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.”
5#Isa 32:14; Jer 52:13 “Arise, and let us go by night
and let us destroy her palaces.”
6For thus says the Lord of Hosts:
Hew down trees
and build a mound against Jerusalem.
This is the city to be punished.
She is full of oppression in her midst.
7#Eze 7:11; 7:23 As a fountain casts out her waters,
so she casts out her wickedness.
Violence and devastation are heard in her;
before Me continually are grief and wounds.
8#Eze 23:18; Hos 9:12 Be instructed, O Jerusalem,
lest My soul depart from you;
lest I make you desolate,
a land not inhabited.
9#Jer 16:16; 49:9Thus says the Lord of Hosts:
They will thoroughly glean
the remnant of Israel as a vine.
Turn back your hand
as a grape gatherer into the baskets.
10#Ac 7:51; Jer 7:26 To whom shall I speak and give warning
that they may hear?
See, their ears are closed,
and they cannot listen.
Indeed, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them;
they have no delight in it.
11#Jer 9:21; 20:9 Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord;
I am weary with holding in.
I will pour it out upon the children in the street
and upon the assembly of young men together;
for even the husband with the wife shall be taken,
the aged with him who is full of days.
12#Jer 8:10; Isa 5:25 Their houses shall be turned to others,
with their fields and wives together;
for I will stretch out My hand
upon the inhabitants of the land,
says the Lord.
13#Jer 8:10; 23:11 For from the least of them even to the greatest of them,
everyone is given to covetousness.
And from the prophet even to the priest,
everyone deals falsely.
14#Eze 13:10; Jer 4:10 They have healed also the brokenness
of the daughter of My people superficially,
saying, “Peace, peace,”
when there is no peace.
15#Jer 3:3; 8:12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?
They were not at all ashamed,
nor could they blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
at the time that I punish them they shall be cast down,
says the Lord.
16#Jer 18:15; Isa 8:20Thus says the Lord
Stand in the ways and see,
and ask for the old paths
where the good way is and walk in it,
and you shall find rest for your souls.
But they said, “We will not walk in it.”
17#Isa 21:11; 58:1 Also I set watchmen over you, saying,
“Listen to the sound of the trumpet.”
But they said, “We will not listen.”
18Therefore hear, O nations,
and know, O congregation,
what is among them.
19#Jer 8:9; Isa 1:2 Hear, O earth.
I will bring calamity on this people,
even the fruit of their thoughts,
because they have not listened to My words,
nor to My law, but rejected it.
20#Isa 1:11; Ps 40:6; Isa 60:6 To what purpose does incense from Sheba come to Me,
and the sweet cane from a far country?
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable,
nor are your sacrifices sweet to Me.
21#Isa 8:14; 9:14–17Therefore thus says the Lord:
See, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people,
and the fathers and the sons together will fall upon them.
The neighbor and his friend will perish.
22#Jer 10:22; 50:41–43Thus says the Lord:
See, a people comes
from the north country,
and a great nation will be raised
from the remote parts of the earth.
23#Isa 13:18; Jer 50:42 They will lay hold on bow and spear;
they are cruel and have no mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea,
and they ride upon horses,
set in array as men for war
against you, O daughter of Zion.
24#Jer 4:31; 49:24 “We have heard the report of it;
our hands grow feeble.
Anguish has taken hold of us,
and pain as of a woman in labor.
25#Jer 49:29; Job 18:11 Do not go out into the field,
nor walk on the road.
For the sword of the enemy
and terror is on every side.”
26#Jer 4:8; Zec 12:10 O daughter of my people, gird yourself with sackcloth
and wallow in ashes.
Mourn as for an only son,
a most bitter lamentation;
for the destroyer
shall suddenly come upon us.
27#Jer 1:18; 15:20 I have set you as an assayer
and fortress among My people
that you may know
and try their way.
28#Jer 9:4; 5:23 They all are stubborn rebels
walking about practicing slander.
They are bronze and iron;
they all are corrupters.
29The bellows blow fiercely,
the lead is consumed by the fire;
the founder melts in vain,
for the wicked are not plucked away.
30#Ps 119:119; Isa 1:22 Men will call them rejected silver,
because the Lord has rejected them.
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