Jeremiah 3-4

Jeremiah 3

¹They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.

²Lift up thine eyes unto the bare heights, and see; where hast thou not been lain with? By the ways hast thou sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.

³Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; yet thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.

⁴Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?

⁵Will he retain his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and hast done evil things, and hast had thy way.

⁶Moreover the LORD said unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

⁷And I said after she had done all these things, She will return unto me; but she returned not: and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

⁸And I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorcement, yet treacherous Judah her sister feared not; but she also went and played the harlot.

⁹And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

¹⁰And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not returned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.

¹¹And the LORD said unto me, Backsliding Israel hath shewn herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

¹²Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; I will not look in anger upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, I will not keep anger for ever.

¹³Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

¹⁴Return, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am a husband unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

¹⁵and I will give you shepherds according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

¹⁶And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD; neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.

¹⁷At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

¹⁸In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance unto your fathers.

¹⁹But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of the nations? and I said, Ye shall call me My father; and shall not turn away from following me.

²⁰Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.

²¹A voice is heard upon the bare heights, the weeping and the supplications of the children of Israel; for that they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the LORD their God.

²²Return, ye backsliding children, I will heal your backslidings, Behold, we are come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.

²³Truly in vain is the help that is looked for from the hills, the tumult on the mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴But the shameful thing hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

²⁵Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day: and we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.

Jeremiah 4

¹If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, unto me shalt thou return: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not be removed;

²and thou shalt swear, As the LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

³For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

⁴Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury go forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

⁵Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry aloud and say? Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fenced cities.

⁶Set up a standard toward Zion: flee for safety, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.

⁷A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; he is on his way, he is gone forth from his place; to make thy land desolate, that thy cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.

⁸For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.

⁹And it shall come to pass at that day, saith the LORD, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.

¹⁰Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.

¹¹At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse;

¹²a full wind from these shall come for me: now will I also utter judgments against them.

¹³Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.

¹⁴O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thine evil thoughts lodge within thee?

¹⁵For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth evil from the hills of Ephraim:

¹⁶make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.

¹⁷As keepers of a field are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the LORD.

¹⁸Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reacheth unto thine heart.

¹⁹My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I cannot hold my peace; because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

²⁰Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.

²¹How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

²²For my people is foolish, they know me not; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

²³I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

²⁴I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved to and fro.

²⁵I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.

²⁶I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and before his fierce anger.

²⁷For thus saith the LORD, The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full end.

²⁸For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.

²⁹The whole city fleeth for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they go into the thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwelleth therein.

³⁰And thou, when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with scarlet, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou enlargest thine eyes with paint, in vain dost thou make thyself fair; thy lovers despise thee, they seek thy life.

³¹For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that gaspeth for breath, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul fainteth before the murderers.