Jeremiah 4

1 If you wish to return, O Israel, says the LORD, return to me. If you put your detestable things out of my sight, and do not stray,
2 Then you can swear, As the LORD lives, in truth, in judgment, and in justice; Then shall the nations use his name in blessing, and glory in him.
3 For to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, thus says the LORD: Till your untilled ground, sow not among thorns.
4 For the sake of the LORD, be circumcised, remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem; Lest my anger break out like fire, and burn till none can quench it, because of your evil deeds.
5 Proclaim it in Judah, make it heard in Jerusalem; Blow the trumpet through the land, summon the recruits! Say, Fall in, let us march to the fortified cities.
6 Bear the standard to Zion, seek refuge without delay! Evil I bring from the north, and great destruction.
7 Up comes the lion from his lair, the destroyer of nations has set out, has left his place, To turn your land into desolation, till your cities lie waste and empty.
8 So gird yourselves with sackcloth, mourn and wail: The blazing wrath of the LORD is not turned away from us.
9 In that day, says the LORD, The king will lose heart, and the princes; the priests will be amazed, and the prophets stunned.
10 Alas! Lord GOD, they will say, You only deceived us When you said: Peace shall be yours; for the sword touches our very soul.
11 At that time it will be said of this people and of Jerusalem, From the glaring heights through the desert a wind comes toward the daughter of my people. Not to winnow, not to cleanse,
12 does this wind from the heights come at my bidding; And I myself now pronounce sentence upon them.
13 See! like storm clouds he advances, like a hurricane his chariots; Swifter than eagles are his steeds: Woe to us! we are ruined.
14 Cleanse your heart of evil, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved. How long must your pernicious thoughts lodge within you?
15 Listen! They proclaim it from Dan, from Mount Ephraim they announce destruction:
16 Make this known to the nations, announce it to Jerusalem: The besiegers are coming from the distant land, shouting their war cry against the cities of Judah.
17 Like watchmen of the fields they surround her, for she has rebelled against me, says the LORD.
18 Your conduct, your misdeeds, have done this to you; how bitter is this disaster of yours, how it reaches to your very heart!
19 My breast! my breast! how I suffer! The walls of my heart! My heart beats wildly, I cannot be still; For I have heard the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
20 Ruin after ruin is reported; the whole earth is laid waste. In an instant my tents are ravaged; in a flash, my shelters.
21 How long must I see that signal, hear that trumpet sound!
22 Fools my people are, they know me not; Senseless children they are, having no understanding; They are wise in evil, but know not how to do good.
23 I looked at the earth, and it was waste and void; at the heavens, and their light had gone out!
24 I looked at the mountains, and they were trembling, and all the hills were crumbling!
25 I looked and behold, there was no man; even the birds of the air had flown away!
26 I looked and behold, the garden land was a desert, with all its cities destroyed before the LORD, before his blazing wrath.
27 For thus says the LORD: Waste shall the whole land be; I will (not) wholly destroy it.
28 Because of this the earth shall mourn, the heavens above shall darken; I have spoken, I will not repent, I have resolved, I will not turn back.
29 At the shout of horseman and bowman each city takes to flight; They shrink into the thickets, they scale the rocks: All the cities are abandoned, and no one dwells in them.
30 You now who are doomed, what do you mean by putting on purple, bedecking yourself with gold, Shading your eyes with cosmetics, beautifying yourself in vain? Your lovers spurn you, they seek your life.
31 Yes, I hear the moaning, as of a woman in travail, like the anguish of a mother with her first child- The cry of daughter Zion gasping, as she stretches forth her hands: Ah, woe is me! I sink exhausted before the slayers!

Jeremiah 5

1 Roam the streets of Jerusalem, look about and observe, Search through her public places, to find even one Who lives uprightly and seeks to be faithful, and I will pardon her!
2 Though they say, As the LORD lives, they swear falsely.
3 O LORD, do your eyes not look for honesty? You struck them, but they did not cringe; you laid them low, but they refused correction; They set their faces harder than stone, and refused to return to you.
4 It is only the lowly, I thought, who are foolish; For they know not the way of the LORD, their duty to their God.
5 I will go to the great ones and speak with them; For they know the way of the LORD, their duty to their God. But, one and all, they had broken the yoke, torn off the harness.
6 Therefore lions from the forest slay them, wolves of the desert ravage them, Leopards keep watch round their cities: all who come out are torn to pieces For their many crimes and their numerous rebellions.
7 Why should I pardon you these things? Your sons have forsaken me, they swear by gods that are not. I fed them, but they committed adultery; to the harlot's house they throng.
8 Lustful stallions they are, each neighs after another's wife.
9 Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD; On a nation such as this shall I not take vengeance?
10 Climb to her terraces, and ravage them, destroy them (not) wholly. Tear away her tendrils, they do not belong to the LORD.
11 For they have openly rebelled against me, both the house of Israel and the house of Judah, says the LORD.
12 They denied the LORD, saying, Not he--No evil shall befall us, neither sword nor famine shall we see.
13 The prophets have become wind, and the word is not in them. May their threats be carried out against themselves!
14 Now, for this that you have said, says the LORD, the God of hosts- Behold, I make my words in your mouth, a fire, And this people is the wood that it shall devour!--
15 Beware, I will bring against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, says the LORD; A long-lived nation, an ancient nation, a people whose language you know not, whose speech you cannot understand.
16 Their quivers are like open graves; all of them are warriors.
17 They will devour your harvest and your bread, devour your sons and your daughters, Devour your sheep and cattle, devour your vines and fig trees; They will beat flat with the sword the fortified city in which you trust.
18 Yet even in those days, says the LORD, I will not wholly destroy you.
19 And when they ask, Why has the LORD done all these things to us? say to them, As you have forsaken me to serve strange gods in your own land, so shall you serve strangers in a land not your own.
20 Announce this to the house of Jacob, proclaim it in Judah:
21 Pay attention to this, foolish and senseless people Who have eyes and see not, who have ears and hear not.
22 Should you not fear me, says the LORD, should you not tremble before me? I made the sandy shore the sea's limit, which by eternal decree it may not overstep. Toss though it may, it is to no avail; though its billows roar, they cannot pass.
23 But this people's heart is stubborn and rebellious; they turn and go away,
24 And say not in their hearts, Let us fear the LORD, our God, Who gives us rain early and late, in its time; Who watches for us over the appointed weeks of harvest.
25 Your crimes have prevented these things, your sins have turned back these blessings from you.
26 For there are among my people criminals; like fowlers they set traps, but it is men they catch.
27 Their houses are as full of treachery as a bird-cage is of birds; Therefore they grow powerful and rich,
28 fat and sleek. They go their wicked way; justice they do not defend By advancing the claim of the fatherless or judging the cause of the poor.
29 Shall I not punish these things? says the LORD; on a nation such as this shall I not take vengeance?
30 A shocking, horrible thing has happened in the land:
31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests teach as they wish; Yet my people will have it so; what will you do when the end comes?

Jeremiah 6

1 Flee, sons of Benjamin, out of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa, raise a signal over Beth-haccherem; For evil threatens from the north, and mighty destruction.
2 O lovely and delicate daughter Zion, you are ruined!
3 Against her, shepherds come with their flocks; all around, they pitch their tents, each one grazes his portion.
4 Prepare for war against her, Up! let us rush upon her at midday! Alas! the day is waning, evening shadows lengthen;
5 Up! let us rush upon her by night, destroy her palaces!
6 For thus says the LORD of hosts: Hew down her trees, throw up a siege mound against Jerusalem. Woe to the city marked for punishment; nought but oppression within her!
7 As the well gushes out its waters, so she gushes out her wickedness. Violence and destruction resound in her; ever before me are wounds and blows.
8 Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I be estranged from you; Lest I turn you into a desert, a land where no man dwells.
9 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Glean, glean like a vine the remnant of Israel; Pass your hand, like a vintager, repeatedly over the tendrils.
10 To whom shall I speak? whom shall I warn, and be heard? See! their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot give heed; See, the word of the LORD has become for them an object of scorn, which they will not have.
11 Therefore my wrath brims up within me, I am weary of holding it in; I will pour it out upon the child in the street, upon the young men gathered together. Yes, all will be taken, husband and wife, graybeard with ancient.
12 Their houses will fall to strangers, their fields and their wives as well; For I will stretch forth my hand against those who dwell in this land, says the LORD.
13 Small and great alike, all are greedy for gain; prophet and priest, all practice fraud.
14 They would repair, as though it were nought, the injury to my people: Peace, peace! they say, though there is no peace.
15 They are odious; they have done abominable things, yet they are not at all ashamed, they know not how to blush. Hence they shall be among those who fall; in their time of punishment they shall go down, says the LORD.
16 Thus says the LORD: Stand beside the earliest roads, ask the pathways of old Which is the way to good, and walk it; thus you will find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk it.
17 When I raised up watchmen for them: Hearken to the sound of the trumpet! they said, We will not hearken.
18 Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O earth, what I will do with them:
19 See, I bring evil upon this people, the fruit of their own schemes, Because they heeded not my words, because they despised my law.
20 Of what use to me incense that comes from Sheba, or sweet cane from far-off lands? Your holocausts find no favor with me, your sacrifices please me not.
21 Therefore, thus says the LORD: See, I will place before this people obstacles to bring them down; Fathers and sons alike, neighbors and friends shall perish.
22 Thus says the LORD: See, a people comes from the land of the north, a great nation, roused from the ends of the earth.
23 Bow and javelin they wield; cruel and pitiless are they. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride forth on steeds, Each in his place, for battle against you, daughter Zion.
24 We hear the report of them; helpless fall our hands, Anguish takes hold of us, throes like a mother's in childbirth.
25 Go not forth into the field, step not into the street, Beware of the enemy's sword; terror on every side!
26 O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes. Mourn as for an only child with bitter wailing, For sudden upon us comes the destroyer.
27 A tester among my people I have appointed you, to search and test their way.
28 Arch-rebels are they all, dealers in slander, all of them corrupt.
29 The bellows roars, the lead is consumed by the fire; In vain has the smelter refined, the wicked are not drawn off.
30 Silver rejected they shall be called, for the LORD has rejected them.