Jeremiah

6 Take shelter, O YOU sons of Benjamin, from the midst of Jerusalem; and in Te·koʹa+ blow the horn.*+ And over Beth-hac·cheʹrem+ raise a fire signal; because calamity itself has looked down out of the north, even a great crash.+ 2 The daughter of Zion has resembled indeed a comely and daintily bred woman.+ 3 To her the shepherds and their droves proceeded to come. Against her they pitched [their] tents all around.+ They grazed off each one his own part.+ 4 Against her they have sanctified war:+ “Rise up, and let us go up at midday!”+

“Woe to us, for the day has declined, for the shadows of evening keep extending themselves!”

5 “Rise up, and let us go up during the night and bring to ruin her dwelling towers.”+

6 For this is what Jehovah of armies has said: “Cut down wood*+ and throw up against Jerusalem a siege rampart.+ She is the city with which an accounting must be held.+ She is nothing but oppression in the midst of her.+ 7 As a cistern keeps its waters cool, so she has kept her badness cool. Violence and despoiling are heard in her;+ sickness and plague are before my face constantly. 8 Be corrected,+ O Jerusalem, that my soul may not turn away disgusted from you;+ that I may not set you as a desolate waste, a land not inhabited.”+

9 This is what Jehovah of armies has said: “They will without fail glean the remnant of Israel just like a vine.+ Put your hand back like one that is gathering grapes upon the vine tendrils.”

10 “To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Look! Their ear is uncircumcised, so that they are unable to pay attention.+ Look! The very word of Jehovah has become to them a reproach,+ in which* [word] they can take no delight.+ 11 And with the rage of Jehovah I have become full. I have become weary with holding in.”+

“Pour [it] out upon the child in the street+ and upon the intimate group of young men at the same time; for they will also be caught, a man* along with his wife,* an old man along with one that is full of days.+ 12 And their houses will certainly be turned over to others for possession, the fields and the wives at the same time.+ For I shall stretch my hand out against the inhabitants of the land,” is the utterance of Jehovah.+

13 “For from the least one of them even to the greatest one of them, every one is making for himself unjust gain;+ and from the prophet even to the priest, each one is acting falsely.+ 14 And they try to heal the breakdown* of my people lightly,*+ saying, ‘There is peace! There is peace!’* when there is no peace.+ 15 Did they feel shame because it was something detestable that they had done?+ For one thing, they positively do not feel any shame; for another thing, they have not come to know even how to feel humiliated.+ Therefore they will fall among those who are falling;+ in the time that I must hold an accounting with them they will stumble,” Jehovah has said.

16 This is what Jehovah has said: “Stand still in the ways, YOU people, and see, and ask for the roadways of long ago, where, now, the good way is;+ and walk in it,+ and find ease for YOUR souls.”+ But they kept saying: “We are not going to walk.”+ 17 “And I raised up over YOU people* watchmen,+ ‘Pay attention to the sound of the horn!’”+ But they kept saying: “We are not going to pay attention.”+ 18 “Therefore hear, O YOU nations! And know, O you assembly, what will be among them. 19 Listen, O earth! Here I am bringing in calamity upon this people+ as the fruitage of their thoughts,+ for they paid no attention to my very own words; and my law—they also kept rejecting it.”+

20 “What does this matter to me that you bring in even frankincense from Sheʹba+ and the good cane* from the land far away? The whole burnt offerings of YOU people serve for no pleasure,+ and YOUR very sacrifices have not been gratifying to me.”+ 21 Therefore this is what Jehovah has said: “Here I am setting for this people stumbling blocks,+ and they will certainly stumble over them, fathers and sons together; the neighbor and his companion—they will perish.”+

22 This is what Jehovah has said: “Look! A people is coming from the land of the north, and there is a great nation that will be awakened from the remotest parts of the earth.+ 23 The bow and the javelin they will grab hold of.+ It* is a cruel one, and they will have no pity. Their very voice will resound just like the sea,+ and upon horses they will ride.+ It is drawn up in battle order like a man of war against you, O daughter of Zion.”+

24 We have heard the report about it.* Our hands have dropped.+ Distress itself has seized hold of us, labor pains like those of a woman giving birth.+ 25 Do not go out* into the field, and do not walk even in the way; for there is the sword belonging to the enemy, there is fright all around.+ 26 O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth+ and wallow in the ashes.+ Make your mourning that for an only [son], the wailing of bitterness;+ because suddenly the despoiler will come upon us.+

27 “I have made you* a metal tester among my people, one making a thorough search;* and you will take note and you must examine* their way.+ 28 All of them are the most stubborn men,*+ walking about as slanderers+—copper and iron. They are all of them ruinous.+ 29 The bellows+ have been scorched.* Out from their fire there is lead.+ One has kept refining intensely simply for nothing, and those who are bad have not been separated.+ 30 Rejected silver is what people will certainly call them,+ for Jehovah has rejected them.”+