Jeremiah 2-5

1Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

2“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

3Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of His harvest. All who devoured her were found guilty; disaster came upon them,’” declares the LORD.

4Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all you families of the house of Israel.

5This is what the LORD says: “What fault did your fathers find in Me that they strayed so far from Me? They followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves.

6They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’

7I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but you came and defiled My land and made My inheritance detestable.

8The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ The experts in the law no longer knew Me, and the leaders rebelled against Me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.

9Therefore, I will contend with you again, declares the LORD, and I will bring a case against your children’s children.

10Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and take a look; send to Kedar and consider carefully; see if there has ever been anything like this:

11Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.

12Be stunned by this, O heavens; be shocked and utterly appalled,” declares the LORD.

13“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns— broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

14Is Israel a slave? Was he born into slavery? Why then has he become prey?

15The young lions have roared at him; they have sounded their voices. They have laid waste his land; his cities lie in ruins, without inhabitant.

16The men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have shaved the crown of your head.

17Have you not brought this on yourself by forsaking the LORD your God when He led you in the way?

18Now what will you gain on your way to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? What will you gain on your way to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates?

19Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the LORD your God and to have no fear of Me,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.

20“For long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your chains, saying, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute.

21I had planted you like a choice vine from the very best seed. How could you turn yourself before Me into a rotten, wild vine?

22Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord GOD.

23“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young she-camel galloping here and there,

24a wild donkey at home in the wilderness, sniffing the wind in the heat of her desire. Who can restrain her passion? All who seek her need not weary themselves; in mating season they will find her.

25You should have kept your feet from going bare and your throat from being thirsty. But you said, ‘It is hopeless! For I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’

26As the thief is ashamed when he is caught, so the house of Israel is disgraced. They, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets

27say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ They have turned their backs to Me and not their faces. Yet in the time of trouble, they say, ‘Rise up and save us!’

28But where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up in your time of trouble and save you if they can; for your gods are as numerous as your cities, O Judah.

29Why do you bring a case against Me? You have all rebelled against Me,” declares the LORD.

30“I have struck your sons in vain; they accepted no discipline. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a voracious lion.”

31You people of this generation, consider the word of the LORD: “Have I been a wilderness to Israel or a land of dense darkness? Why do My people say, ‘We are free to roam; we will come to You no more’?

32Does a maiden forget her jewelry or a bride her wedding sash? Yet My people have forgotten Me for days without number.

33How skillfully you pursue love! Even the most immoral of women could learn from your ways.

34Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor, though you did not find them breaking in. But in spite of all these things

35you say, ‘I am innocent. Surely His anger will turn from me.’ Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’

36How impulsive you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.

37Moreover, you will leave that place with your hands on your head, for the LORD has rejected those you trust; you will not prosper by their help.”

1“If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers— and you would return to Me?” declares the LORD.

2“Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.

3Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to be ashamed.

4Have you not just called to Me, ‘My Father, You are my friend from youth.

5Will He be angry forever? Will He be indignant to the end?’ This you have spoken, but you keep doing all the evil you can.”

6Now in the days of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree to prostitute herself there.

7I thought that after she had done all these things, she would return to Me. But she did not return, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it.

8She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well.

9Indifferent to her own infidelity, Israel had defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

10Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the LORD.

11And the LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than unfaithful Judah.

12Go, proclaim this message toward the north: ‘Return, O faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will no longer look on you with anger, for I am merciful,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will not be angry forever.

13Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the LORD your God. You have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every green tree and have not obeyed My voice,’” declares the LORD.

14“Return, O faithless children,” declares the LORD, “for I am your master, and I will take you—one from a city and two from a family—and bring you to Zion.

15Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.”

16“In those days, when you multiply and increase in the land,” declares the LORD, “they will no longer discuss the ark of the covenant of the LORD. It will never come to mind, and no one will remember it or miss it, nor will another one be made.

17At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations will be gathered in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. They will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.

18In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave to your fathers as an inheritance.

19Then I said, ‘How I long to make you My sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations!’ I thought you would call Me ‘Father’ and never turn away from following Me.

20But as a woman may betray her husband, so you have betrayed Me, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD.

21A voice is heard on the barren heights, the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy, because they have perverted their ways and forgotten the LORD their God.

22“Return, O faithless children, and I will heal your faithlessness.” “Here we are. We come to You, for You are the LORD our God.

23Surely deception comes from the hills, and commotion from the mountains. Surely the salvation of Israel is in the LORD our God.

24From our youth, that shameful god has consumed what our fathers have worked for— their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters.

25Let us lie down in our shame; let our disgrace cover us. We have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our fathers; from our youth even to this day we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”

1“If you will return, O Israel, return to Me,” declares the LORD. “If you will remove your detestable idols from My sight and no longer waver,

2and if you can swear, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then the nations will be blessed by Him, and in Him they will glory.”

3For this is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your unplowed ground, and do not sow among the thorns.

4Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it, because of your evil deeds.”

5Announce in Judah, proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: “Blow the ram’s horn throughout the land. Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves and let us flee to the fortified cities.’

6Raise a signal flag toward Zion. Seek refuge! Do not delay! For I am bringing disaster from the north, and terrible destruction.

7A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his lair to lay waste your land. Your cities will be reduced to ruins and lie uninhabited.

8So put on sackcloth, mourn and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us.”

9“In that day,” declares the LORD, “the king and officials will lose their courage. The priests will tremble in fear, and the prophets will be astounded.”

10Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD, how completely You have deceived this people and Jerusalem by saying, ‘You will have peace,’ while a sword is at our throats.”

11At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A searing wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward the daughter of My people, but not to winnow or to sift;

12a wind too strong for that comes from Me. Now I also pronounce judgments against them.”

13Behold, he advances like the clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!

14Wash the evil from your heart, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts within you?

15For a voice resounds from Dan, proclaiming disaster from the hills of Ephraim.

16Warn the nations now! Proclaim to Jerusalem: “A besieging army comes from a distant land; they raise their voices against the cities of Judah.

17They surround her like men guarding a field, because she has rebelled against Me,” declares the LORD.

18“Your ways and deeds have brought this upon you. This is your punishment; how bitter it is, because it pierces to the heart!”

19My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the pain in my chest! My heart pounds within me; I cannot be silent. For I have heard the sound of the horn, the alarm of battle.

20Disaster after disaster is proclaimed, for the whole land is laid waste. My tents are destroyed in an instant, my curtains in a moment.

21How long must I see the signal flag and hear the sound of the horn?

22“For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”

23I looked at the earth, and it was formless and void; I looked to the heavens, and they had no light.

24I looked at the mountains, and behold, they were quaking; all the hills were swaying.

25I looked, and no man was left; all the birds of the air had fled.

26I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert. All its cities were torn down before the LORD, before His fierce anger.

27For this is what the LORD says: “The whole land will be desolate, but I will not finish its destruction.

28Therefore the earth will mourn and the heavens above will grow dark. I have spoken, I have planned, and I will not relent or turn back.”

29Every city flees at the sound of the horseman and archer. They enter the thickets and climb among the rocks. Every city is abandoned; no inhabitant is left.

30And you, O devastated one, what will you do, though you dress yourself in scarlet, though you adorn yourself with gold jewelry, though you enlarge your eyes with paint? You adorn yourself in vain; your lovers despise you; they want to take your life.

31For I hear a cry like a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child— the cry of the Daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands to say, “Woe is me, for my soul faints before the murderers!”

1“Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem. Look now and take note; search her squares. If you can find a single person, anyone who acts justly, anyone who seeks the truth, then I will forgive the city.

2Although they say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ they are swearing falsely.”

3O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.

4Then I said, “They are only the poor; they have played the fool, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.

5I will go to the powerful and speak to them. Surely they know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.” But they too, with one accord, had broken the yoke and torn off the chains.

6Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them down, a wolf from the desert will ravage them. A leopard will lie in wait near their cities, and everyone who ventures out will be torn to pieces. For their rebellious acts are many, and their unfaithful deeds are numerous.

7“Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by gods that are not gods. I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery and assembled at the houses of prostitutes.

8They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

9Should I not punish them for these things?” declares the LORD. “Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

10Go up through her vineyards and ravage them, but do not finish them off. Strip off her branches, for they do not belong to the LORD.

11For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly unfaithful to Me,” declares the LORD.

12They have lied about the LORD and said: “He will not do anything; harm will not come to us; we will not see sword or famine.

13The prophets are but wind, for the word is not in them. So let their own predictions befall them.”

14Therefore this is what the LORD God of Hosts says: “Because you have spoken this word, I will make My words a fire in your mouth and this people the wood it consumes.

15Behold, I am bringing a distant nation against you, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD. “It is an established nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know and whose speech you do not understand.

16Their quivers are like open graves; they are all mighty men.

17They will devour your harvest and food; they will consume your sons and daughters; they will eat up your flocks and herds; they will feed on your vines and fig trees. With the sword they will destroy the fortified cities in which you trust.”

18“Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I will not make a full end of you.

19And when the people ask, ‘For what offense has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ You are to tell them, ‘Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.’”

20Declare this in the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah:

21“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.

22Do you not fear Me?” declares the LORD. “Do you not tremble before Me, the One who set the sand as the boundary for the sea, an enduring barrier it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot cross it.

23But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned aside and gone away.

24They have not said in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rains, both autumn and spring, in season, who keeps for us the appointed weeks of harvest.’

25Your iniquities have diverted these from you; your sins have deprived you of My bounty.

26For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men.

27Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich.

28They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.

29Should I not punish them for these things?” declares the LORD. “Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

30A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land.

31The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?