Jeremiah 7-11

Jeremiah 7

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

²Take your place in the doorway of the Lord's house, and give out this word there, and say, Give ear to the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who come inside these doors to give worship to the Lord.

³The Lord of armies, the God of Israel, says, Let your ways and your doings be changed for the better and I will let you go on living in this place.

⁴Put no faith in false words, saying, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, are these.

⁵For if your ways and your doings are truly changed for the better; if you truly give right decisions between a man and his neighbour;

⁶If you are not cruel to the man from a strange country, and to the child without a father, and to the widow, and do not put the upright to death in this place, or go after other gods, causing damage to yourselves:

⁷Then I will let you go on living in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers in the past and for ever.

⁸See, you put your faith in false words which are of no profit.

⁹Will you take the goods of others, put men to death, and be untrue to your wives, and take false oaths, and have perfumes burned to the Baal, and go after other gods which are strange to you;

¹⁰And come and take your place before me in this house, which is named by my name, and say, We have been made safe; so that you may do all these disgusting things?

¹¹Has this house, which is named by my name, become a hole of thieves to you? Truly I, even I, have seen it, says the Lord.

¹²But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I put my name at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil-doing of my people Israel.

¹³And now, because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and I sent my word to you, getting up early and sending, but you did not give ear; and my voice came to you, but you gave no answer:

¹⁴For this reason I will do to the house which is named by my name, and in which you have put your faith, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

¹⁵And I will send you away from before my face, as I have sent away all your brothers, even all the seed of Ephraim.

¹⁶And as for you (Jeremiah), make no prayers for this people, send up no cry or prayer for them, make no request for them to me: for I will not give ear.

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

¹⁸The children go for wood, the fathers get the fire burning, the women are working the paste to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and drink offerings are drained out to other gods, moving me to wrath.

¹⁹Are they moving me to wrath? says the Lord; are they not moving themselves to their shame?

²⁰So this is what the Lord God has said: See, my wrath and my passion will be let loose on this place, on man and beast, and on the trees of the field, and on the produce of the earth; it will be burning and will not be put out.

²¹These are the words of the Lord of armies, the God of Israel: Put your burned offerings with your offerings of beasts, and take flesh for your food.

²²For I said nothing to your fathers, and gave them no orders, on the day when I took them out of Egypt, about burned offerings or offerings of beasts:

²³But this was the order I gave them, saying, Give ear to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people: go in all the way ordered by me, so that all may be well for you.

²⁴But they took no note and did not give ear, but were guided by the thoughts and the pride of their evil hearts, going back and not forward.

²⁵From the day when your fathers came out of Egypt till this day, I have sent my servants the prophets to you, getting up early every day and sending them:

²⁶But still they took no note and would not give ear, but they made their necks stiff, doing worse than their fathers.

²⁷And you are to say all these words to them, but they will not give ear to you: you will send out your voice to them, but they will give no answer.

²⁸And you are to say to them, This is the nation which has not given ear to the voice of their God, or taken his teaching to heart: good faith is dead and is cut off from their mouths.

²⁹Let your hair be cut off, O Jerusalem, and let it go, and let a song of grief go up on the open hilltops; for the Lord is turned away from the generation of his wrath and has given them up.

³⁰For the children of Judah have done what is evil in my eyes, says the Lord: they have put their disgusting images in the house which is named by my name, making it unclean.

³¹And they have put up the high place of Topheth in the valley of the son of Hinnom, burning their sons and their daughters there in the fire; a thing which was not ordered by me and never came into my mind.

³²For this cause, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it will no longer be named Topheth, or, The valley of the son of Hinnom, but, The valley of Death: for they will put the dead into the earth in Topheth till there is no more room.

³³And the bodies of this people will be food for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth; and there will be no one to send them away.

³⁴And in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, I will put an end to the laughing voices, the voice of joy and the voice of the newly-married man and the voice of the bride: for the land will become a waste.

Jeremiah 8

¹At that time, says the Lord, they will take the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his rulers, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem out of their resting-places:

²And they will put them out before the sun and the moon and all the stars of heaven, whose lovers and servants they have been, after whom they have gone, to whom they have made prayers, and to whom they have given worship: they will not be put together or placed in the earth; they will be waste on the face of the earth.

³And death will be desired more than life by the rest of this evil family who are still living in all the places where I have sent them away, says the Lord of armies.

⁴Further, you are to say to them, This is what the Lord has said: Will those who are falling not be lifted up again? will he who has gone away not come back?

⁵Why do these people of Jerusalem go back, for ever turning away? they will not give up their deceit, they will not come back.

⁶I took note and gave ear, but no one said what is right: no man had regret for his evil-doing, saying, What have I done? everyone goes off on his way like a horse rushing to the fight.

⁷Truly, the stork in the heavens is conscious of her fixed times; the dove and the swallow and the crane keep to the times of their coming; but my people have no knowledge of the law of the Lord.

⁸How is it that you say, We are wise and the law of the Lord is with us? But see, the false pen of the scribes has made it false.

⁹The wise men are shamed, they are overcome with fear and taken: see, they have given up the word of the Lord; and what use is their wisdom to them?

¹⁰So I will give their wives to others, and their fields to those who will take them for themselves: for everyone, from the least to the greatest, is given up to getting money; from the priest even to the prophet, everyone is false.

¹¹And they have made little of the wounds of the daughter of Zion, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

¹²Let them be put to shame because they have done disgusting things. They had no shame, they were not able to become red with shame: so they will come down with those who are falling: in the time of their punishment they will be made low, says the Lord.

¹³I will put an end to them completely, says the Lord: there are no grapes on the vine and no figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf is dry.

¹⁴Why are we seated doing nothing? come together, and let us go to the walled towns, and let destruction overtake us there, for the Lord our God has sent destruction on us, and given us bitter water for our drink, because we have done evil against the Lord.

¹⁵We were looking for peace, but no good came; and for a time of well-being, but there is only a great fear.

¹⁶The loud breathing of the horses comes to our ears from Dan: at the sound of the outcry of his war-horses, all the land is shaking with fear; for they have come, and have made a meal of the land and everything in it; the town and the people living in it.

¹⁷See, I will send snakes and poison-snakes among you, against which the wonder-worker has no power; and they will give you wounds which may not be made well, says the Lord.

¹⁸Sorrow has come on me! my heart in me is feeble.

¹⁹The voice of the cry of the daughter of my people comes from a far land: Is the Lord not in Zion? is not her King in her? Why have they made me angry with their images and their strange gods which are no gods?

²⁰The grain-cutting is past, the summer is ended, and no salvation has come to us.

²¹For the destruction of the daughter of my people I am broken: I am dressed in the clothing of grief; fear has taken me in its grip.

²²Is there no life-giving oil in Gilead? is there no expert in medical arts? why then have my people not been made well?

Jeremiah 9

¹If only my head was a stream of waters and my eyes fountains of weeping, so that I might go on weeping day and night for the dead of the daughter of my people!

²If only I had in the waste land a night's resting-place for travellers, so that I might go away, far from my people! for they are all untrue, a band of false men.

³Their tongues are bent like a bow to send out false words: they have become strong in the land, but not for good faith: they go on from evil to evil, and they have no knowledge of me, says the Lord.

⁴Let everyone keep watch on his neighbour, and put no faith in any brother: for every brother will certainly be tricking his brother, and every neighbour will go about saying evil.

⁵Everyone will make sport of his neighbour with deceit, not saying what is true: their tongues have been trained to say false words; they are twisted, hating to come back.

⁶There is wrong on wrong, deceit on deceit; they have given up the knowledge of me, says the Lord.

⁷So the Lord of armies has said, See, I will make them soft in the fire and put them to the test; this I will do because of their evil-doing.

⁸His tongue is an arrow causing death; the words of his mouth are deceit: he says words of peace to his neighbour, but in his heart he is waiting secretly for him.

⁹Am I not to send punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?

¹⁰Give yourselves to weeping, crying out in sorrow for the mountains; and for the fields of the waste land send up a song of grief, because they are burned up, so that no one goes through; there is no sound of cattle; the bird of the heavens and the beast are in flight and are gone.

¹¹And I will make Jerusalem a mass of broken stones, the living-place of jackals; and I will make the towns of Judah a waste, with no man living there.

¹²Who is the wise man able to see this? who is he to whom the word of the Lord has come, so that he may make it clear? why is the land given to destruction and burned up like a waste place, so that no one goes through?

¹³And the Lord said, Because they have given up my law which I put before them, giving no attention to my voice and not being guided by it;

¹⁴But they have been walking in the pride of their hearts, going after the Baals, as their fathers gave them teaching.

¹⁵So the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, I will give them, even this people, bitter plants for food and bitter water for drink.

¹⁶And I will send them wandering among the nations, among people strange to them and to their fathers: and I will send the sword after them till I have put an end to them.

¹⁷This is what the Lord of armies has said: Take thought and send for the weeping women, so that they may come; and send for the wise women, so that they may come:

¹⁸Let them quickly make cries of sorrow for us, so that drops may be flowing from our eyes till they are streaming with water.

¹⁹For a sound of weeping goes up from Zion, a cry, How has destruction come on us? we are overcome with shame because we have gone away from our land; he has sent us out from our house.

²⁰But even now, give ear to the word of the Lord, O you women; let your ears be open to the word of his mouth, training your daughters to give cries of sorrow, everyone teaching her neighbour a song of grief.

²¹For death has come up into our windows, forcing its way into our great houses; cutting off the children in the streets and the young men in the wide places.

²²The bodies of men will be falling like waste on the open fields, and like grain dropped by the grain-cutter, and no one will take them up.

²³This is the word of the Lord: Let not the wise man take pride in his wisdom, or the strong man in his strength, or the man of wealth in his wealth:

²⁴But if any man has pride, let it be in this, that he has the wisdom to have knowledge of me, that I am the Lord, working mercy, giving true decisions, and doing righteousness in the earth: for in these things I have delight, says the Lord.

²⁵See, the day is coming, says the Lord, when I will send punishment on all those who have circumcision in the flesh;

²⁶On Egypt and on Judah and on Edom and on the children of Ammon and on Moab and on all who have the ends of their hair cut, who are living in the waste land: for all these nations and all the people of Israel are without circumcision in their hearts.

Jeremiah 10

¹Give ear to the word which the Lord says to you, O people of Israel:

²This is what the Lord has said: Do not go in the way of the nations; have no fear of the signs of heaven, for the nations go in fear of them.

³For that which is feared by the people is foolish: it is the work of the hands of the workman; for a tree is cut down by him out of the woods with his axe.

⁴They make it beautiful with silver and gold; they make it strong with nails and hammers, so that it may not be moved.

⁵It is like a pillar in a garden of plants, and has no voice: it has to be lifted, for it has no power of walking. Have no fear of it; for it has no power of doing evil and it is not able to do any good.

⁶There is no one like you, O Lord; you are great and your name is great in power.

⁷Who would not have fear of you, O King of the nations? for it is your right: for among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.

⁸But they are together like beasts and foolish: the teaching of false gods is wood.

⁹Silver hammered into plates is sent from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the expert workman and of the hands of the gold-worker; blue and purple is their clothing, all the work of expert men.

¹⁰But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and an eternal king: when he is angry, the earth is shaking with fear, and the nations give way before his wrath.

¹¹This is what you are to say to them: The gods who have not made the heavens and the earth will be cut off from the earth and from under the heavens.

¹²He has made the earth by his power, he has made the world strong in its place by his wisdom, and by his wise design the heavens have been stretched out.

¹³At the sound of his voice there is a massing of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mists go up from the ends of the earth; he makes the thunder-flames for the rain, and sends out the wind from his store-houses.

¹⁴Then every man becomes like a beast without knowledge; every gold-worker is put to shame by the image he has made: for his metal image is deceit, and there is no breath in them.

¹⁵They are nothing, a work of error: in the time of their punishment, destruction will overtake them.

¹⁶The heritage of Jacob is not like these; for the maker of all things is his heritage: the Lord of armies is his name.

¹⁷Get your goods together and go out of the land, O you who are shut up in the walled town.

¹⁸For the Lord has said, I will send the people in flight like a stone from the land at this time, troubling them so that they will be conscious of it.

¹⁹Sorrow is mine for I am wounded! my wound may not be made well; and I said, Cruel is my disease, I may not be free from it.

²⁰My tent is pulled down and all my cords are broken: my children have gone from me, and they are not: no longer is there anyone to give help in stretching out my tent and hanging up my curtains.

²¹For the keepers of the sheep have become like beasts, not looking to the Lord for directions: so they have not done wisely and all their flocks have been put to flight.

²²News is going about, see, it is coming, a great shaking is coming from the north country, so that the towns of Judah may be made waste and become the living-place of jackals.

²³O Lord, I am conscious that a man's way is not in himself: man has no power of guiding his steps.

²⁴O Lord, put me right, but with wise purpose; not in your wrath, or you will make me small.

²⁵Let your wrath be let loose on the nations which have no knowledge of you, and on the families who give no worship to your name: for they have made a meal of Jacob, truly they have made a meal of him and put an end to him and made his fields a waste.

Jeremiah 11

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

²Give ear to the words of this agreement, and say to the men of Judah and to the people of Jerusalem,

³The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, Let that man be cursed who does not give ear to the words of this agreement,

⁴To the order which I gave your fathers on the day when I took them out of the land of Egypt, out of the oven of iron, saying, Give ear to my voice, and do all the orders I have given you: so you will be my people, and I will be your God:

⁵So that I may give effect to the oath which I made to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey as at this day. And I said in answer, So be it, O Lord.

⁶And the Lord said to me, Give out these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Give ear to the words of this agreement and do them.

⁷For I gave certain witness to your fathers on the day when I took them up out of the land of Egypt, and even to this day, getting up early and witnessing and saying, Give ear to my voice.

⁸But they gave no attention and did not give ear, but they went on, every man in the pride of his evil heart: so I sent on them all the curses in this agreement, which I gave them orders to keep, but they did not.

⁹And the Lord said to me, There is an evil design at work among the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem.

¹⁰They are turned back to the sins of their fathers, who would not give ear to my words; they have gone after other gods and become their servants: the people of Israel and the people of Judah have not kept the agreement which I made with their fathers.

¹¹So the Lord has said, I will send evil on them, which they will not be able to get away from; and they will send up a cry for help to me, but I will not give ear to them.

¹²Then the towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go crying for help to the gods to whom they have been burning perfumes: but they will give them no salvation in the time of their trouble.

¹³For the number of your gods is as the number of your towns, O Judah; and for every street in Jerusalem you have put up altars to the Baal for burning perfumes to the Baal.

¹⁴And as for you, make no prayers for this people, send up no cry or prayer for them: for I will not give ear to their cry in the time of their trouble.

¹⁵About Judah. What have you to do in my house? is it your thought that oaths and holy flesh will get you out of your trouble? will you make yourself safe in this way?

¹⁶You had been named by the Lord, A branching olive-tree, fair with beautiful fruit: with the noise of a great rushing he has put it on fire and its branches are broken.

¹⁷For the Lord of armies, by whom you were planted, has given his decision for evil against you, because of the evil which the people of Israel and the people of Judah have done, In moving me to wrath by offering perfumes to the Baal.

¹⁸And the Lord gave me knowledge of it and I saw it: then you made clear to me their doings.

¹⁹But I was like a gentle lamb taken to be put to death; I had no thought that they were designing evil against me, saying, Come and let us make trouble his food, cutting him off from the land of the living, so that there may be no more memory of his name.

²⁰But, O Lord of armies, judging in righteousness, testing the thoughts and the heart, let me see your punishment come on them: for I have put my cause before you.

²¹So this is what the Lord of armies has said about the men of Anathoth who have made designs against your life, saying, You are not to be a prophet in the name of the Lord, or death will overtake you by our hands:

²²So the Lord of armies has said, See, I will send punishment on them: the young men will be put to the sword; their sons and their daughters will come to death through need of food:

²³Not one of them will keep his life, for I will send evil on the men of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.