Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹God says, “If a husband divorces his wife And she leaves him And becomes another man’s wife, Will he return to her again? Would that land not be completely defiled? But you are a prostitute with many lovers; Yet you turn to Me,” declares the LORD.

²“Raise your eyes to the bare heights and see; Where have you not been violated? You have sat for them by the roads Like an Arab in the desert, And you have defiled a land With your prostitution and your wickedness.

³Therefore the showers have been withheld, And there has been no spring rain. Yet you had a prostitute’s forehead; You refused to be ashamed.

⁴Have you not just now called to Me, ‘My Father, You are the friend of my youth?

⁵Will He be angry forever, Or keep His anger to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken And have done evil things, And you have had your own way.”

⁶Then the LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every leafy tree, and she prostituted herself there.

⁷Yet I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

⁸And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and prostituted herself also.

⁹And because of the thoughtlessness of her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

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

¹¹And the LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has proved herself to be more righteous than treacherous Judah.

¹²Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, ‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD; ‘I will not look at you in anger. For I am gracious,’ declares the LORD; ‘I will not be angry forever.

¹³Only acknowledge your wrongdoing, That you have revolted against the LORD your God, And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every leafy tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the LORD.

¹⁴‘Return, you faithless sons,’ declares the LORD; ‘For I am a master to you, And I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, And bring you to Zion.’

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

¹⁶And it shall be in those days when you become numerous and are fruitful in the land,” declares the LORD, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor miss it, nor will it be made again.

¹⁷At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the LORD,’ and all the nations will assemble at it, at Jerusalem, for the name of the LORD; and they will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil heart.

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 your fathers as an inheritance.

¹⁹“Then I said, ‘How I would set you among My sons And give you a pleasant land, The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’ And I said, ‘You shall call Me, My Father, And not turn away from following Me.’

²⁰However, as a woman treacherously leaves her lover, So you have dealt treacherously with Me, House of Israel,” declares the LORD.

²¹A voice is heard on the bare heights, The weeping, the pleading of the sons of Israel. Because they have perverted their way, They have forgotten the LORD their God.

²²“Return, you faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness.” “Behold, we come to You; For You are the LORD our God.

²³Certainly the hills are a deception, Commotion on the mountains. Certainly in the LORD our God Is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴“But the shame has consumed the product of our fathers’ labor since our youth—their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

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

¹“If you will return, Israel,” declares the LORD, “Then you should return to Me. And if you will put away your detestable things from My presence, And will not waver,

²And if you will swear, ‘As the LORD lives,’ In truth, in justice, and in righteousness; Then the nations will bless themselves in Him, And in Him they will boast.”

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

⁴Circumcise yourselves to the LORD And remove the foreskins of your hearts, Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Or else My wrath will spread like fire And burn with no one to quench it, Because of the evil of your deeds.”

⁵Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say, “Blow the trumpet in the land; Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble, and let’s go Into the fortified cities.’

⁶Raise a flag toward Zion! Take refuge, do not stand still, For I am bringing evil from the north, And great destruction.

⁷A lion has gone up from his thicket, And a destroyer of nations has set out; He has gone out from his place To make your land a waste. Your cities will be ruins, Without an inhabitant.

⁸For this, put on sackcloth, Mourn and wail; For the fierce anger of the LORD Has not turned away from us.”

⁹“And it shall come about on that day,” declares the LORD, “that the heart of the king and the hearts of the leaders will fail; and the priests will tremble, and the prophets will be astonished.”

¹⁰Then I said, “Oh, Lord GOD! Surely You have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace’; yet a sword touches the throat.”

¹¹At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness, in the direction of the daughter of My people—not to winnow and not to cleanse,

¹²a wind too strong for this—will come at My command; now I will also pronounce judgments against them.”

¹³“Behold, he goes up like clouds, And his chariots like the whirlwind; His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!”

¹⁴Wash your heart from evil, Jerusalem, So that you may be saved. How long will your wicked thoughts Lodge within you?

¹⁵For a voice declares from Dan, And proclaims wickedness from Mount Ephraim.

¹⁶“Report it to the nations, now! Proclaim to Jerusalem, ‘Enemies are coming from a remote country, And they raise their voices against the cities of Judah.

¹⁷Like watchmen of a field they are against her all around, Because she has rebelled against Me,’ declares the LORD.

¹⁸Your ways and your deeds Have brought these things upon you. This is your evil. How bitter! How it has touched your heart!”

¹⁹My soul, my soul! I am in anguish! Oh, my heart! My heart is pounding in me; I cannot keep silent, Because, my soul, you have heard The sound of the trumpet, The alarm of war.

²⁰Disaster upon disaster is proclaimed, For the whole land is devastated; Suddenly my tents are devastated, And my curtains in an instant.

²¹How long must I see the flag And hear the sound of the trumpet?

²²“For My people are foolish, They do not know Me; They are foolish children And have no understanding. They are skillful at doing evil, But they do not know how to do good.”

²³I looked at the earth, and behold, it was a formless and desolate emptiness; And to the heavens, and they had no light.

²⁴I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, And all the hills jolted back and forth.

²⁵I looked, and behold, there was no human, And all the birds of the sky had fled.

²⁶I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a wilderness, And all its cities were pulled down Before the LORD, before His fierce anger.

²⁷For this is what the LORD says: “The whole land shall be a desolation, Yet I will not execute a complete destruction.

²⁸For this the earth will mourn, And the heavens above will become dark, Because I have spoken, I have purposed, And I have not changed My mind, nor will I turn from it.”

²⁹At the sound of the horseman and archer every city flees; They go into the thickets and climb among the rocks; Every city is abandoned, And no one lives in them.

³⁰And you, desolate one, what will you do? Although you dress in scarlet, Although you adorn yourself with jewelry of gold, Although you enlarge your eyes with makeup, In vain you make yourself beautiful. Your lovers despise you; They seek your life.

³¹For I heard a voice cry as of a woman in labor, The anguish as of one giving birth to her first child. The voice of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath, Stretching out her hands, saying, “Ah, woe to me, for I faint before murderers.”

¹“Roam about through the streets of Jerusalem, And look and take notice. And seek in her public squares, If you can find a person, If there is one who does justice, who seeks honesty, Then I will forgive her.

²And although they say, ‘As the LORD lives,’ Certainly they swear falsely.”

³LORD, do Your eyes not look for honesty? You have struck them, But they did not weaken; You have consumed them, But they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than rock; They have refused to repent.

⁴Then I said, “They are only the poor, They are foolish; For they do not know the way of the LORD Or the judgment of their God.

⁵I will go to the great And speak to them, For they know the way of the LORD And the judgment of their God.” But together they too have broken the yoke And burst the restraints.

⁶Therefore a lion from the forest will kill them, A wolf of the deserts will destroy them, A leopard is watching their cities. Everyone who goes out of them will be torn in pieces, Because their wrongdoings are many, Their apostasies are numerous.

⁷“Why should I forgive you? Your sons have forsaken Me And sworn by those who are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, They committed adultery And stayed at the prostitute’s house.

⁸They were well-fed lusty horses, Each one neighing at his neighbor’s wife.

⁹Shall I not punish them for these things?” declares the LORD, “And shall I not avenge Myself On a nation such as this?

¹⁰“Go up through her vine rows and destroy, But do not execute a complete destruction; Strip away her branches, For they are not the LORD’S.

¹¹For the house of Israel and the house of Judah Have dealt very treacherously with Me,” declares the LORD.

¹²They have lied about the LORD And said, “Not He; Misfortune will not come upon us, Nor will we see sword or famine.

¹³The prophets are as wind, And the word is not in them. So it will be done to them!”

¹⁴Therefore, this is what the LORD, the God of armies says: “Because you have spoken this word, Behold, I am making My words fire in your mouth, And this people wood, and it will consume them.

¹⁵Behold, I am bringing a nation against you from far away, you house of Israel,” declares the LORD. “It is an enduring nation, It is an ancient nation, A nation whose language you do not know, Nor can you understand what they say.

¹⁶Their quiver is like an open grave, All of them are warriors.

¹⁷They will devour your harvest and your food; They will devour your sons and your daughters; They will devour your flocks and your herds; They will devour your vines and your fig trees; They will demolish your fortified cities, in which you trust, with the sword.

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

¹⁹And it shall come about when they say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Just as you have abandoned Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

²⁰“Declare this in the house of Jacob And proclaim it in Judah, saying,

²¹‘Now hear this, you 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 in My presence? For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, An eternal limit, and it will not cross over it. Though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; Though they roar, they will not cross over it.

²³But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; They have turned aside and departed.

²⁴They do not say in their heart, “Let us now fear the LORD our God, Who gives rain in its season, Both the autumn rain and the spring rain, Who keeps for us The appointed weeks of the harvest.”

²⁵Your wrongdoings have turned these away, And your sins have kept good away from you.

²⁶For wicked people are found among My people, They watch like fowlers lying in wait; They set a trap, They catch people.

²⁷Like a cage full of birds, So their houses are full of deceit; Therefore they have become great and rich.

²⁸They are fat, they are sleek, They also excel in deeds of wickedness; They do not plead the cause, The cause of the orphan, so that they may be successful; And they do not defend the rights of the poor.

²⁹Shall I not punish them for these things?’ declares the LORD, ‘Or shall I not avenge Myself On a nation such as this?’

³⁰“An appalling and horrible thing Has happened in the land:

³¹The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it this way! But what will you do when the end comes?

¹“Flee to safety, you sons of Benjamin, From the midst of Jerusalem! Blow a trumpet in Tekoa And raise a warning signal over Beth-haccerem; For evil looks down from the north, Along with a great destruction.

²The beautiful and delicate one, the daughter of Zion, I will destroy.

³Shepherds and their flocks will come to her, They will pitch their tents around her, They will pasture, each in his place.

⁴‘Prepare for war against her; Arise, and let’s attack at noon. Woe to us, for the day declines, For the shadows of the evening lengthen!

⁵Arise, and let’s attack by night And destroy her palaces!’ ”

⁶For this is what the LORD of armies says: “Cut down her trees And pile up an assault ramp against Jerusalem. This is the city to be punished, In whose midst there is only oppression.

⁷As a well keeps its waters fresh, So she keeps fresh her wickedness. Violence and destruction are heard in her; Sickness and wounds are constantly before Me.

⁸Be warned, Jerusalem, Or I shall be alienated from you, And make you a desolation, An uninhabited land.”

⁹This is what the LORD of armies says: “They will thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel like the vine; Pass your hand over the branches again Like a grape gatherer.”

¹⁰To whom shall I speak and give warning, That they may hear? Behold, their ears are closed And they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the LORD has become for them a rebuke; They take no delight in it.

¹¹But I am full of the wrath of the LORD; I am weary of holding it in. “Pour it out on the children in the street And on the gathering of young men together; For both husband and wife shall be taken, The old and the very old.

¹²Their houses shall be turned over to others, Their fields and their wives together; For I will stretch out My hand Against the inhabitants of the land,” declares the LORD.

¹³“For from the least of them to the greatest of them, Everyone is greedy for gain, And from the prophet to the priest Everyone deals falsely.

¹⁴They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.

¹⁵Were they ashamed because of the abomination they had done? They were not ashamed at all, Nor did they know even how to be ashamed. Therefore they will fall among those who fall; At the time that I punish them, They will collapse,” says the LORD.

¹⁶This is what the LORD says: “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; Then you will find a resting place for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

¹⁷And I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen.’

¹⁸Therefore hear, you nations, And know, you congregation, what is among them.

¹⁹Hear, earth: behold, I am bringing disaster on this people, The fruit of their plans, Because they have not listened to My words, And as for My Law, they have rejected it also.

²⁰For what purpose does frankincense come to Me from Sheba, And the sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable And your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.”

²¹Therefore, this is what the LORD says: “Behold, I am placing stumbling blocks before this people. And they will stumble against them, Fathers and sons together; Neighbor and friend will perish.”

²²This is what the LORD says: “Behold, there is a people coming from the north land, And a great nation will be stirred up from the remote parts of the earth.

²³They seize bow and spear; They are cruel and have no mercy; Their voice roars like the sea, And they ride on horses, Lined up as a man for the battle Against you, daughter of Zion!”

²⁴We have heard the report of it; Our hands are limp. Anguish has seized us, Pain like that of a woman in childbirth.

²⁵Do not go out into the field, And do not walk on the road; For the enemy has a sword, Terror is on every side.

²⁶Daughter of my people, put on sackcloth And roll in ashes; Mourn as for an only son, A most bitter mourning. For suddenly the destroyer Will come against us.

²⁷“I have made you an assayer and an examiner among My people, So that you may know and put their way to the test.”

²⁸All of them are stubbornly rebellious, Going about as a slanderer; They are bronze and iron. They are, all of them, corrupt.

²⁹The bellows blow fiercely, The lead is consumed by the fire; In vain the refining goes on, But the wicked are not separated.

³⁰They call them rejected silver, Because the LORD has rejected them.

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

²“Stand at the gate of the LORD’S house and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship the LORD!’ ”

³This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: “Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you live in this place.

⁴Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’

⁵For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a person and his neighbor,

⁶if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor follow other gods to your own ruin,

⁷then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

⁸“Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail.

⁹Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, offer sacrifices to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known,

¹⁰then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are saved!’—so that you may do all these abominations?

¹¹Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I Myself have seen it,” declares the LORD.

¹²“But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the beginning, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

¹³And now, because you have done all these things,” declares the LORD, “and I spoke to you, speaking again and again, but you did not listen, and I called you but you did not answer,

¹⁴therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, just as I did to Shiloh.

¹⁵I will hurl you out of My sight, just as I have hurled out all your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.

¹⁶“As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not plead with Me; for I am not listening to you.

¹⁷Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁸The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to provoke Me to anger.

¹⁹Are they provoking Me?” declares the LORD. “Is it not themselves instead, to their own shame?”

²⁰Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: “Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on human and animal life, and on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched.”

²¹This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat flesh.

²²For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.

²³But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you shall walk entirely in the way which I command you, so that it may go well for you.’

²⁴Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked by their own advice and in the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and they went backward and not forward.

²⁵Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets, sending them daily, again and again.

²⁶Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did more evil than their fathers.

²⁷“So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you.

²⁸And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God or accept discipline; trustworthiness has perished and has been eliminated from their mouth.

²⁹Cut off your hair and throw it away, And take up a song of mourning on the bare heights; For the LORD has rejected and forsaken The generation of His wrath.’

³⁰For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight,” declares the LORD. “They have put their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it.

³¹They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind.

³²“Therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of the Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place.

³³The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth; and no one will frighten them away.

³⁴Then I will eliminate from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride; for the land will become a site of ruins.

¹“At that time,” declares the LORD, “they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its leaders, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves.

²They will spread them out to the sun, the moon, and to all the heavenly lights, which they have loved, which they have served, which they have followed, which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered nor buried; they will be like dung on the face of the ground.

³And death will be chosen rather than life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family, that remains in all the places to which I have driven them,” declares the LORD of armies.

⁴“You shall say to them, ‘This is what the LORD says: “Do people fall and not get up? Does one turn away and not repent?

⁵Why has this people, Jerusalem, Turned away in continual apostasy? They hold on to deceit, They refuse to return.

⁶I have listened and heard, They have spoken what is not right; No one repented of his wickedness, Saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turned to his own course, Like a horse charging into the battle.

⁷Even the stork in the sky Knows her seasons; And the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane Keep to the time of their migration; But My people do not know The judgment of the LORD.

⁸“How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the Law of the LORD is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes Has made it into a lie.

⁹The wise men are put to shame, They are dismayed and caught; Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, So what kind of wisdom do they have?

¹⁰Therefore I will give their wives to others, Their fields to new owners; Because from the least even to the greatest Everyone is greedy for gain; From the prophet even to the priest, Everyone practices deceit.

¹¹They have healed the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.

¹²Were they ashamed because of the abomination they had done? They were not ashamed at all, And they did not know how to be ashamed; Therefore they will fall among those who fall; At the time of their punishment they will collapse,” Says the LORD.

¹³“I will certainly snatch them away,” declares the LORD. “There will be no grapes on the vine And no figs on the fig tree, And the leaf will wither; And what I have given them will pass away.” ’ ”

¹⁴Why are we sitting still? Assemble yourselves, and let’s go into the fortified cities And perish there, For the LORD our God has doomed us And given us poisoned water to drink, Because we have sinned against the LORD.

¹⁵We waited for peace, but no good came; For a time of healing, but behold, terror!

¹⁶From Dan there is heard the snorting of his horses; At the sound of the neighing of his stallions The whole land quakes; For they come and devour the land and its fullness, The city and its inhabitants.

¹⁷“For behold, I am sending serpents among you, Vipers for which there is no charm; And they will bite you,” declares the LORD.

¹⁸My sorrow is beyond healing, My heart is faint within me!

¹⁹Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land: “Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not within her?” “Why have they provoked Me with their carved images, with foreign idols?”

²⁰“Harvest is past, summer is over, And we are not saved.”

²¹I am broken over the brokenness of the daughter of my people. I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.

²²Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?

¹Oh, that my head were waters And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night For those slain of the daughter of my people!

²Oh that I had in the desert A travelers’ lodging place; So that I might leave my people And go away from them! For all of them are adulterers, An assembly of treacherous people.

³“They bend their tongues like their bows; Lies and not truth prevail in the land; For they proceed from evil to evil, And they do not know Me,” declares the LORD.

⁴“Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor, And do not trust any brother; Because every brother utterly betrays, And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

⁵Everyone deceives his neighbor And does not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They weary themselves committing wrongdoing.

⁶Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the LORD.

⁷Therefore this is what the LORD of armies says: “Behold, I will refine them and put them to the test; For what else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?

⁸Their tongue is a deadly arrow; It speaks deceit; With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, But inwardly he sets an ambush for him.

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

¹⁰“I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, And for the pastures of the wilderness a song of mourning, Because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, And the sound of the livestock is not heard; Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled; they are gone.

¹¹I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, A haunt of jackals; And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.”

¹²Who is the wise person who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land destroyed, laid waste like the desert, so that no one passes through?

¹³The LORD said, “Because they have abandoned My Law which I put before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it,

¹⁴but have followed the stubbornness of their heart and the Baals, as their fathers taught them,”

¹⁵therefore this is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood; and I will give them poisoned water to drink.

¹⁶I will also scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them until I have put an end to them.”

¹⁷This is what the LORD of armies says: “Consider and call for the mourning women, that they may come; And send for the skillful women, that they may come!

¹⁸Have them hurry and take up a wailing for us, So that our eyes may shed tears, And our eyelids flow with water.

¹⁹For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How devastated we are! We are put to great shame, For we have abandoned the land Because they have torn down our homes.’ ”

²⁰Now hear the word of the LORD, you women, And let your ears receive the word of His mouth; Teach your daughters wailing, And have every woman teach her neighbor a song of mourning.

²¹For death has come up through our windows; It has entered our palaces To eliminate the children from the streets, The young men from the public squares.

²²Speak, “This is what the LORD says: ‘The corpses of people will fall like dung on the open field, And like the sheaf after the reaper, But no one will gather them.’ ”

²³This is what the LORD says: “Let no wise man boast of his wisdom, nor let the mighty man boast of his might, nor a rich man boast of his riches;

²⁴but let the one who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises mercy, justice, and righteousness on the earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.

²⁵“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised—

²⁶Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all those inhabiting the desert who trim the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart.”

¹Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, house of Israel.

²This is what the LORD says: “Do not learn the way of the nations, And do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens, Although the nations are terrified by them;

³For the customs of the peoples are futile; For it is wood cut from the forest, The work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool.

⁴They decorate the idol with silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammers So that it will not totter.

⁵They are like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, And they cannot speak; They must be carried, Because they cannot walk! Do not fear them, For they can do no harm, Nor can they do any good.”

⁶There is none like You, LORD; You are great, and Your name is great in might.

⁷Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? For it is Your due! For among all the wise men of the nations And in all their kingdoms, There is none like You.

⁸But they are altogether stupid and foolish; The instruction from idols is nothing but wood!

⁹Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, And gold from Uphaz, The work of a craftsman and of the hands of a goldsmith; Their clothing is of violet and purple; They are all the work of skilled people.

¹⁰But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King. The earth quakes at His wrath, And the nations cannot endure His indignation.

¹¹This is what you shall say to them: “The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under these heavens.”

¹²It is He who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom; And by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens.

¹³When He utters His voice, there is a roar of waters in the heavens, And He makes the clouds ascend from the end of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain, And brings out the wind from His storehouses.

¹⁴Every person is stupid, devoid of knowledge; Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, For his cast metal images are deceitful, And there is no breath in them.

¹⁵They are worthless, a work of mockery; At the time of their punishment they will perish.

¹⁶The Portion of Jacob is not like these; For He is the Maker of everything, And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; The LORD of armies is His name.

¹⁷Pick up your bundle from the ground, You who live under siege!

¹⁸For this is what the LORD says: “Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land At this time, And I will cause them distress, So that they may be found.”

¹⁹Woe to me, because of my injury! My wound is incurable. But I said, “This certainly is a sickness, And I must endure it.”

²⁰My tent is destroyed, And all my ropes are broken. My sons have gone from me and are no more. There is no one to stretch out my tent again Or to set up my curtains.

²¹For the shepherds have become stupid And have not sought the LORD. Therefore they have not prospered, And all their flock is scattered.

²²The sound of a report! Behold, it is coming— A great roar from the land of the north— To make the cities of Judah A desolation, a haunt of jackals.

²³I know, LORD, that a person’s way is not in himself, Nor is it in a person who walks to direct his steps.

²⁴Correct me, LORD, but with justice; Not with Your anger, or You will bring me to nothing.

²⁵Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not know You, And on the families who do not call upon Your name; For they have devoured Jacob; They have devoured him and consumed him, And have laid waste his settlement.

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

²“Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

³and say to them, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: “Cursed is the one who does not obey the words of this covenant

⁴which I commanded your forefathers on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Listen to My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so you shall be My people, and I will be your God,’

⁵in order to confirm the oath which I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day.” ’ ” Then I replied, “Amen, LORD.”

⁶And the LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Hear the words of this covenant and do them.

⁷For I solemnly warned your fathers on the day I brought them up from the land of Egypt, even to this day, warning them persistently, saying, “Listen to My voice.”

⁸Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in the stubbornness of their evil heart, each one of them; therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant which I commanded them to do, but they did not.’ ”

⁹Then the LORD said to me, “A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁰They have turned back to the wrongdoings of their ancestors who refused to hear My words, and they have followed other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers.”

¹¹Therefore this is what the LORD says: “Behold, I am bringing disaster on them which they will not be able to escape; though they will cry out to Me, I will not listen to them.

¹²Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they certainly will not save them in the time of their disaster.

¹³For your gods are as many as your cities, Judah; and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to the shameful thing, altars for burning incense to Baal.

¹⁴“So as for you, do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not listen when they call to Me because of their disaster.

¹⁵What right has My beloved in My house When she has carried out many evil schemes? Can the sacrificial flesh take away from you your disaster, So that you can rejoice?”

¹⁶The LORD named you “A green olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form”; With the noise of a great tumult He has set fire to it, And its branches are worthless.

¹⁷The LORD of armies, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you because of the evil of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me by offering sacrifices to Baal.

¹⁸Moreover, the LORD made it known to me and I knew it; Then You showed me their deeds.

¹⁹But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; And I did not know that they had devised plots against me, saying, “Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit, And let’s cut him off from the land of the living, So that his name will no longer be remembered.”

²⁰But, LORD of armies, who judges righteously, Who puts the feelings and the heart to the test, Let me see Your vengeance on them, For to You I have committed my cause.

²¹Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the people of Anathoth, who are seeking your life, saying: “Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, so that you do not die by our hand”;

²²therefore, this is what the LORD of armies says: “Behold, I am going to punish them! The young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters will die by famine;

²³and a remnant will not be left to them, because I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth—the year of their punishment.”

¹Righteous are You, LORD, when I plead my case with You; Nevertheless I would discuss matters of justice with You: Why has the way of the wicked prospered? Why are all those who deal in treachery at ease?

²You have planted them, they have also taken root; They grow, they have also produced fruit. You are near to their lips But far from their mind.

³But You know me, LORD; You see me And examine my heart’s attitude toward You. Drag them off like sheep for the slaughter, And set them apart for a day of slaughter!

⁴How long is the land to mourn, And the vegetation of the countryside to dry up? Due to the wickedness of those who live in it, Animals and birds have been snatched away, Because people have said, “He will not see our final end.”

⁵“If you have run with infantrymen and they have tired you out, How can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, How will you do in the thicket by the Jordan?

⁶For even your brothers and the household of your father, Even they have dealt treacherously with you, Even they have called aloud after you. Do not believe them, though they say nice things to you.”

⁷“I have forsaken My house, I have abandoned My inheritance; I have handed the beloved of My soul Over to her enemies.

⁸My inheritance has become to Me Like a lion in the forest; She has roared against Me; Therefore I have come to hate her.

⁹Is My inheritance like a speckled bird of prey to Me? Are the birds of prey against her on every side? Go, gather all the animals of the field, Bring them to devour!

¹⁰Many shepherds have ruined My vineyard, They have trampled down My field; They have made My pleasant field A desolate wilderness.

¹¹It has been made a desolation; Desolate, it mourns before Me; The whole land has been made desolate, Because no one takes it to heart.

¹²On all the bare heights in the wilderness Destroyers have come, For the sword of the LORD is devouring From one end of the land even to the other; There is no peace for anyone.

¹³They have sown wheat but have harvested thorns, They have strained themselves to no profit. So be ashamed of your produce Because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”

¹⁴This is what the LORD says concerning all My wicked neighbors who do harm to the inheritance with which I have endowed My people Israel: “Behold, I am going to drive them out of their land, and I will drive the house of Judah out from among them.

¹⁵And it will come about that after I have driven them out, I will again have compassion on them; and I will bring them back, each one to his inheritance and each one to his land.

¹⁶Then, if they will really learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, ‘As the LORD lives,’ just as they taught My people to swear by Baal, they will be built up in the midst of My people.

¹⁷But if they do not listen, then I will drive out that nation, drive it out and destroy it,” declares the LORD.

¹This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen undergarment and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water.”

²So I bought the undergarment in accordance with the word of the LORD, and put it around my waist.

³Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time, saying,

⁴“Take the undergarment that you bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a crevice of the rock.”

⁵So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD had commanded me.

⁶After many days the LORD said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates and take from there the undergarment which I commanded you to hide there.”

⁷Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the undergarment from the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the undergarment was ruined, it was completely useless.

⁸Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

⁹“This is what the LORD says: ‘To the same extent I will destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.

¹⁰This wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have followed other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, let them be just like this undergarment which is completely useless.

¹¹For as the undergarment clings to the waist of a man, so I made the entire household of Israel and the entire household of Judah cling to Me,’ declares the LORD, ‘so that they might be My people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but they did not listen.’

¹²“Therefore you are to speak this word to them. ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: “Every jug is to be filled with wine.” ’ And when they say to you, ‘Do we not very well know that every jug is to be filled with wine?’

¹³then say to them, ‘This is what the LORD says: “Behold, I am going to fill all the inhabitants of this land—the kings who sit for David on his throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with drunkenness!

¹⁴Then I will smash them against each other, both the fathers and the sons together,” declares the LORD. “I will not have compassion nor be troubled nor take pity so as to keep from destroying them.” ’ ”

¹⁵Listen and pay attention, do not be haughty; For the LORD has spoken.

¹⁶Give glory to the LORD your God Before He brings darkness And before your feet stumble On the mountains in the dark, And while you are hoping for light He makes it into gloom, And turns it into thick darkness.

¹⁷But if you do not listen to it, My soul will weep in secret for such pride; And my eyes will shed And stream down tears, Because the flock of the LORD has been taken captive.

¹⁸Say to the king and the queen mother, “Take a lowly seat, For your beautiful crown Has come down from your head.”

¹⁹The cities of the Negev have been locked up, And there is no one to open them; All Judah has been taken into exile, Wholly taken into exile.

²⁰“Raise your eyes and see Those coming from the north. Where is the flock that was given you, Your beautiful sheep?

²¹What will you say when He appoints over you— And you yourself had taught them— Former companions to be head over you? Will sharp pains not take hold of you Like a woman in childbirth?

²²If you say in your heart, ‘Why have these things happened to me?’ Because of the magnitude of your wrongdoing Your skirts have been removed And your heels have suffered violence.

²³Can the Ethiopian change his skin, Or the leopard his spots? Then you as well can do good Who are accustomed to doing evil.

²⁴Therefore I will scatter them like drifting straw To the desert wind.

²⁵This is your lot, the portion measured to you From Me,” declares the LORD, “Because you have forgotten Me And trusted in falsehood.

²⁶So I Myself have stripped your skirts off over your face, So that your shame will be seen.

²⁷As for your adulteries and your lustful neighings, The outrageous sin of your prostitution On the hills in the field, I have seen your abominations. Woe to you, Jerusalem! How long will you remain unclean?”

¹That which came as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah regarding the drought:

²“Judah mourns And her gates languish; Her people sit on the ground in mourning garments, And the cry of Jerusalem has ascended.

³Their nobles have sent their servants for water; They have come to the cisterns and found no water. They have returned with their containers empty; They have been put to shame and humiliated, And they cover their heads,

⁴Because the ground is cracked, For there has been no rain on the land. The farmers have been put to shame, They have covered their heads.

⁵For even the doe in the field has given birth only to abandon her young, Because there is no grass.

⁶The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights; They pant for air like jackals, Their eyes fail Because there is no vegetation.

⁷Though our wrongdoings testify against us, LORD, act for the sake of Your name! Our apostasies have indeed been many, We have sinned against You.

⁸Hope of Israel, Its Savior in time of distress, Why are You like a stranger in the land, Or like a traveler who has pitched his tent for the night?

⁹Why are You like a confused person, Like a warrior who cannot save? Yet You are in our midst, LORD, And we are called by Your name; Do not leave us!”

¹⁰This is what the LORD says to this people: “So much they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore the LORD does not accept them; now He will remember their wrongdoing and call their sins to account.”

¹¹So the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for a good outcome on behalf of this people.

¹²When they fast, I am not going to listen to their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I am not going to accept them. Rather, I am going to put an end to them by the sword, famine, and plague.”

¹³But I said, “Oh, Lord GOD! Behold, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see a sword, nor will you have famine; on the contrary, I will give you lasting peace in this place.’ ”

¹⁴Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them, nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility, and the deception of their own minds.

¹⁵Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name, although it was not I who sent them—yet they keep saying: ‘There will be no sword or famine in this land’—by sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end!

¹⁶And the people to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and there will be no one to bury them—neither them, nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters. For I will pour out their own wickedness upon them.

¹⁷You will say this word to them, ‘Let my eyes stream down tears night and day, And let them not cease; For the virgin daughter of my people has been crushed with a mighty blow, With a sorely infected wound.

¹⁸If I go out to the country, There are those killed by the sword! Or if I enter the city, There are diseases from famine! For both prophet and priest Have wandered around in the land that they do not know.’ ”

¹⁹Have You completely rejected Judah? Or have You loathed Zion? Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We waited for peace, but nothing good came; And for a time of healing, but behold, terror!

²⁰We know our wickedness, LORD, The wrongdoing of our fathers, for we have sinned against You.

²¹Do not despise us, for the sake of Your own name; Do not disgrace the throne of Your glory. Remember and do not annul Your covenant with us.

²²Are there any among the idols of the nations who give rain? Or can the heavens grant showers? Is it not You, LORD our God? Therefore we wait for You, For You are the one who has done all these things.

¹Then the LORD said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people. Send them away from My presence and have them go!

²And it shall be that when they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you are to tell them, ‘This is what the LORD says: “Those destined for death, to death; And those destined for the sword, to the sword; And those destined for famine, to famine; And those destined for captivity, to captivity.” ’

³And I will appoint over them four kinds of doom,” declares the LORD: “the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth to devour and destroy.

⁴I will make them an object of terror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

⁵“Indeed, who will have pity on you, Jerusalem, Or who will mourn for you, Or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?

⁶You who have forsaken Me,” declares the LORD, “You keep going backward. So I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am tired of relenting!

⁷I will winnow them with a winnowing fork At the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy My people; They did not repent of their ways.

⁸Their widows will be more numerous before Me Than the sand of the seas; I will bring against them, against the mother of a young man, A destroyer at noon; I will suddenly bring down on her Shock and horror.

⁹She who gave birth to seven sons withers away; Her breathing is labored. Her sun has set while it was still day; She has been shamed and humiliated. So I will turn over their survivors to the sword Before their enemies,” declares the LORD.

¹⁰Woe to me, my mother, that you have given birth to me As a man of strife and a man of contention to all the land! I have not lent, nor have people lent money to me, Yet everyone curses me.

¹¹The LORD said, “I will certainly set you free for purposes of good; I will certainly make the enemy plead with you In a time of disaster and a time of distress.

¹²“Can anyone smash iron, Iron from the north, or bronze?

¹³I will give your wealth and your treasures As plunder without cost, For all your sins And within all your borders.

¹⁴Then I will make your enemies bring your possessions Into a land that you do not know; For a fire has been kindled in My anger, And it will burn upon you.”

¹⁵You know, LORD; Remember me, take notice of me, And take vengeance for me on my persecutors. Do not, in view of Your patience, take me away; Know that for Your sake I endure reproach.

¹⁶Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became a joy to me and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, LORD God of armies.

¹⁷I did not sit in a circle of revelers and celebrate. Because of Your hand upon me I sat alone, For You filled me with indignation.

¹⁸Why has my pain been endless And my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream With water that is unreliable?

¹⁹Therefore, this is what the LORD says: “If you return, then I will restore you— You will stand before Me; And if you extract the precious from the worthless, You will become My spokesman. They, for their part, may turn to you, But as for you, you are not to turn to them.

²⁰Then I will make you to this people A fortified wall of bronze; And though they fight against you, They will not prevail over you; For I am with you to save you And rescue you,” declares the LORD.

²¹“So I will rescue you from the hand of the wicked, And I will redeem you from the grasp of the violent.”