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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?