Jeremiah 9
9
1-2I wish my head were a well of water
and my eyes fountains of tears
So I could weep day and night
for casualties among my dear, dear people.
At times I wish I had a wilderness hut,
a backwoods cabin,
Where I could get away from my people
and never see them again.
They’re a faithless, feckless bunch,
a congregation of degenerates.
* * *
3-6“Their tongues shoot out lies
like a bow shoots arrows—
A mighty army of liars,
the sworn enemies of truth.
They advance from one evil to the next,
ignorant of me.”
God’s Decree.
“Be wary of even longtime neighbors.
Don’t even trust your grandmother!
Brother schemes against brother,
like old cheating Jacob.
Friend against friend
spreads malicious gossip.
Neighbors gyp neighbors,
never telling the truth.
They’ve trained their tongues to tell lies,
and now they can’t tell the truth.
They pile wrong upon wrong, stack lie upon lie,
and refuse to know me.”
God’s Decree.
7-9Therefore, God-of-the-Angel-Armies says:
“Watch this! I’ll melt them down
and see what they’re made of.
What else can I do
with a people this wicked?
Their tongues are poison arrows!
Deadly lies stream from their mouths.
Neighbor greets neighbor with a smile,
‘Good morning! How’re things?’
while scheming to do away with him.
Do you think I’m going to stand around and do nothing?”
God’s Decree.
“Don’t you think I’ll take serious measures
against a people like this?
10-11“I’m lamenting the loss of the mountain pastures.
I’m chanting dirges for the old grazing grounds.
They’ve become deserted wastelands too dangerous for travelers.
No sounds of sheep bleating or cattle mooing.
Birds and wild animals, all gone.
Nothing stirring, no sounds of life.
I’m going to make Jerusalem a pile of rubble,
fit for nothing but stray cats and dogs.
I’m going to reduce Judah’s towns to piles of ruins
where no one lives!”
* * *
12I asked, “Is there anyone around bright enough to tell us what’s going on here? Anyone who has the inside story from God and can let us in on it?
“Why is the country wasted?
“Why no travelers in this desert?”
13-15 God’s answer: “Because they abandoned my plain teaching. They wouldn’t listen to anything I said, refused to live the way I told them to. Instead they lived any way they wanted and took up with the Baal gods, who they thought would give them what they wanted—following the example of their parents.” And this is the consequence. God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so:
“I’ll feed them with pig slop.
“I’ll give them poison to drink.
16“Then I’ll scatter them far and wide among godless peoples that neither they nor their parents have ever heard of, and I’ll send Death in pursuit until there’s nothing left of them.”
A Life That Is All Outside but No Inside
17-19A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
“Look over the trouble we’re in and call for help.
Send for some singers who can help us mourn our loss.
Tell them to hurry—
to help us express our loss and lament,
Help us get our tears flowing,
make tearful music of our crying.
Listen to it!
Listen to that torrent of tears out of Zion:
‘We’re a ruined people,
we’re a shamed people!
We’ve been driven from our homes
and must leave our land!’”
* * *
20-21Mourning women! Oh, listen to God’s Message!
Open your ears. Take in what he says.
Teach your daughters songs for the dead
and your friends the songs of heartbreak.
Death has climbed in through the window,
broken into our bedrooms.
Children on the playgrounds drop dead,
and young men and women collapse at their games.
22Speak up! “God’s Message:
“‘Dead bodies everywhere, scattered at random
like sheep and goat dung in the fields,
Like wheat cut down by reapers
and left to rot where it falls.’”
23-24 God’s Message:
“Don’t let the wise brag of their wisdom.
Don’t let heroes brag of their exploits.
Don’t let the rich brag of their riches.
If you brag, brag of this and this only:
That you understand and know me.
I’m God, and I act in loyal love.
I do what’s right and set things right and fair,
and delight in those who do the same things.
These are my trademarks.”
God’s Decree.
* * *
25-26“Stay alert! It won’t be long now”—God’s Decree!—“when I will personally deal with everyone whose life is all outside but no inside: Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab. All these nations are big on performance religion—including Israel, who is no better.”
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Jeremiah 9: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Jeremiah 9
9
1If my head were a spring of water,
my eyes a fountain of tears,
I would weep day and night # Ps 42:3; Jr 13:17; Lm 2:11; Lk 19:41
over the slain of my dear # Lit slain among the daughter of my people.
2# Jr 9:1 in HbIf only I had a traveler’s lodging place
in the wilderness, # 1Kg 19:9-10
I would abandon my people
and depart from them,
for they are all adulterers, # Jr 23:10; Hs 7:4; Mal 3:5
a solemn assembly of treacherous people. # Is 24:16; 33:1; Jr 12:1
3They bent their tongues like their bows;
lies and not faithfulness prevail in the land,
for they proceed from one evil to another,
and they do not take Me into account. # Jr 4:22
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Imminent Ruin and Exile
4Everyone has to be on guard against his friend.
Don’t trust any brother,
for every brother will certainly deceive, # Gn 27:36
and every friend spread slander. # Jr 6:28
5Each one betrays his friend; # Gn 31:7
no one tells the truth.
They have taught their tongues to speak lies;
they wear themselves out doing wrong.
6You live in a world of deception. # LXX reads Oppression on oppression, deceit on deceit # Gn 27:35-36; 34:13
In their deception they refuse to know Me. # Rm 1:17
This is the Lord’s declaration.
7Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts says:
I am about to refine them and test them, # Is 1:25; Jr 6:27
for what else can I do
because of My dear # Lit of the daughter of My people? # LXX, Tg read because of their evils
8Their tongues are deadly arrows —
they speak deception. # Ps 28:3
With his mouth
a man speaks peaceably with his friend,
but inwardly he sets up an ambush.
9Should I not punish them for these things?
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Should I not avenge Myself # Jr 5:9,29
on such a nation as this?
10I will raise weeping and a lament
over the mountains,
a dirge over the wilderness grazing land,
for they have been so scorched
that no one passes through.
The sound of cattle is no longer heard.
From the birds of the sky to the animals, # Jr 4:25; 12:4
everything has fled — they have gone away.
11I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, # 2Kg 19:25; Is 25:2
a jackals’ den. # Jr 10:22; 49:33; 51:37
I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,
an uninhabited place.
12Who is the man wise enough to understand this? # Ps 107:43; Ec 8:1; Hs 14:9 Who has the Lord spoken to, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a wilderness, so no one can pass through?
13The Lord said, “It is because they abandoned My instruction # 2Ch 12:1 that I set in front of them and did not obey My voice or walk according to it. 14Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts # Dt 29:19; Ps 81:12 and followed after the Baals as their fathers taught them.” # Jr 2:8,23 15Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to feed this people wormwood # Dt 29:18; Jr 23:15; Lm 3:19 and give them poisonous water to drink. # Jr 8:14; 23:15 16I will scatter them among the nations # Lv 26:33; Dt 4:27; 28:64 that they and their fathers have not known. I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”
Mourning over Judah
17This is what the Lord of Hosts says:
Consider, and summon the women who mourn; # Ec 12:5; Am 5:16
send for the skillful women.
18Let them come quickly to raise a lament over us
so that our eyes may overflow with tears,
our eyelids soaked with weeping.
19For a sound of lamentation is heard from Zion:
How devastated we are.
We are greatly ashamed, # Jr 2:26; 6:15; 8:12
for we have abandoned the land;
our dwellings have been torn down.
20Now hear the word of the Lord, you women.
Pay attention to # Lit Your ears must receive the word of His mouth.
Teach your daughters a lament
and one another a dirge,
21for Death # Jb 18:13; 28:22; Ps 49:14 has climbed through our windows;
it has entered our fortresses,
cutting off children from the streets,
young men from the squares.
22Speak as follows:
This is what the Lord says:
Human corpses will fall
like manure on the surface of the field, # 2Kg 9:30,32,37
like newly cut grain # Am 2:13; Mc 4:12; Zch 12:6 after the reaper
with no one to gather it.
Boast in the Lord
23This is what the Lord says:
The wise man must not boast in his wisdom;
the strong man must not boast in his strength;
the wealthy man must not boast in his wealth.
24But the one who boasts should boast in this,
that he understands and knows Me # Ps 34:2; 64:10; 105:3; 1Co 1:31; 2Co 10:17 —
that I am Yahweh, showing faithful love,
justice, and righteousness on the earth,
for I delight in these things.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
25“The days are coming” — the Lord’s declaration — “when I will punish all the circumcised yet uncircumcised: # Jr 4:4; Rm 2:28-29 26Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the inhabitants of the desert who clip the hair on their temples. # Or who live in distant places All these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.” # Lv 19:27; Jr 25:23; 49:32; Ezk 44:7,9
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