18The LORD informed me, and I knew—
Then You let me see their deeds.
19For I was like a docile lamb
Led to the slaughter;
I did not realize
That it was against me
They fashioned their plots:
“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,h
Let us cut him off from the land of the living.
That his name be remembered no more!”
20O LORD of Hosts, O just Judge,
Who test the thoughts and the mind,
Let me see Your retribution upon them,
For I lay my case before You.
21Assuredly, thus said the LORD of Hosts concerning the men of Anathoth who seek your life and say, “You must not prophesy any more in the name of the LORD, or you will die by our hand”—22Assuredly, thus said the LORD of Hosts: “I am going to deal with them: the young men shall die by the sword, their boys and girls shall die by famine. 23No remnant shall be left of them, for I will bring disaster on the men of Anathoth, the year of their doom.”
12
You will win,a O LORD,if I make claim against You,
Yet I shall present charges against You:
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why are the workers of treachery at ease?
2You have planted them, and they have taken root,
They spread, they even bear fruit.
You are present in their mouths,
But far from their thoughts.
3Yet You, LORD, have noted and observed me;
You have tested my heart, and found it with You.
Drive them out like sheep to the slaughter,
Prepare them for the day of slaying!
4How long must the land languish,
And the grass of all the countryside dry up?
Must beasts and birds perish,
Because of the evil of its inhabitants,
Who say, “He will not look upon our future”?b
5cIf you race with the foot-runners and they exhaust you,
How then can you compete with horses?
If you are d-secure only-d in a tranquil land,
How will you fare in the jungle of the Jordan?
6For even your kinsmen and your father’s house,
Even they are treacherous toward you,
They cry after you as a mob.
Do not believe them
When they speak cordially to you.
7I have abandoned My House,
I have deserted My possession,
I have given over My dearly beloved
Into the hands of her enemies.
8My own peoplee acted toward Me
Like a lion in the forest;
She raised her voice against Me—
Therefore I have rejected her.
9f-My own people acts toward Me
Like a bird of prey [or] a hyena;
Let the birds of prey surround her!-f
Go, gather all the wild beasts,
Bring them to devour!
10Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard,
Have trampled My field,
Have made My delightful field
A desolate wilderness.
11g-They have-g made her a desolation;
Desolate, she pours out grief to Me.
The whole land is laid desolate,
But no man gives it thought.
12Spoilers have come
Upon all the bare heights of the wilderness.
For a sword of the LORD devours
From one end of the land to the other;
No flesh is safe.
13They have sown wheat and reaped thorns,
They have endured pain to no avail.
Be shamed, then, by your harvest—
By the blazing wrath of the LORD!
14Thus said the LORD: As for My wicked neighbors who encroach on the heritage that I gave to My people Israel—I am going to uproot them from their soil, and I will uproot the House of Judah out of the midst of them. 15Then, after I have uprooted them, I will take them back into favor, and restore them each to his own inheritance and his own land. 16And if they learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name—“As the LORD lives”—just as they once taught My people to swear by Baal, then they shall be h-built up in the midst of-h My people. 17But if they do not give heed, I will tear out that nation, tear it out and destroy it— declares the LORD.
13 Thus the LORD said to me: “Go buy yourself a loincloth of linen, and put it around your loins, but do not dip it into water.” 2So I bought the loincloth in accordance with the LORD’s command, and put it about my loins. 3And the word of the LORD came to me a second time: 4“Take the loincloth which you bought, which is about your loins, and go at once to Peratha and cover it up there in a cleft of the rock.” 5I went and buried it at Perath, as the LORD had commanded me. 6Then, after a long time, the LORD said to me, “Go at once to Perath and take there the loincloth which I commanded you to bury there.” 7So I went to Perath and dug up the loincloth from the place where I had buried it; and found the loincloth ruined; it was not good for anything.
8The word of the LORD came to me: 9Thus said the LORD: Even so will I ruin the overweening pride of Judah and Jerusalem. 10This wicked people who refuse to heed My bidding, who follow the willfulness of their own hearts, who follow other gods and serve them and worship them, shall become like that loincloth, which is not good for anything. 11For as the loincloth clings close to the loins of a man, so I brought close to Me the whole House of Israel and the whole House of Judah—declares the LORD—that they might be My people, for fame, and praise, and splendor. But they would not obey.
12And speak this word to them: Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: “Every jar should be filled with wine.” And when they say to you, “Don’t we know that every jar should be filled with wine?” 13say to them, “Thus said the LORD: I am going to fill with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings who sit on the throne of David, and the priests and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 14And I will smash them one against the other, parents and children alike—declares the LORD; no pity, compassion, or mercy will stop Me from destroying them.”
15Attend and give ear; be not haughty,
For the LORD has spoken.
16Give honor to the LORD your God
Before He brings darkness,
Before your feet stumble
On the mountains in shadow—
When you hope for light,
And it is turned to darkness
And becomes deep gloom.
17For if you will not give heed,
My inmost self must weep,
Because of your arrogance;
My eye must stream and flow
With copious tears,
Because the flock of the LORD
Is taken captive.
18Say to the king and the queen mother,
“Sit in a lowly spot;
For your diadems are abased,
Your glorious crowns.”
19The cities of the Negeb are shut,
There is no one to open them;
b-Judah is exiled completely,
All of it exiled.-b
20Raise your eyes and behold
Those who come from the north:
Where are the sheep entrusted to you,
The flock you took pride in?
21c-What will you say when they appoint as your heads
Those among you whom you trained to be tame?-c
Shall not pangs seize you
Like a woman in childbirth?
22And when you ask yourself,
“Why have these things befallen me?”
It is because of your great iniquity
That your skirts are lifted up,
Your limbs exposed.
23Can the Cushite change his skin,
Or the leopard his spots?
Just as much can you do good,
Who are practiced in doing evil!
24So I will scatter youd like straw that flies
Before the desert wind.
25This shall be your lot,
Your measured portion from Me
—declares the LORD.
Because you forgot Me
And trusted in falsehood,
26I in turn will lift your skirts over your face
And your shame shall be seen.
27I behold your adulteries,
Your lustful neighing.
Your unbridled depravity, your vile acts
On the hills of the countryside.
Woe to you, O Jerusalem,
Who will not be clean!
How much longer shall it be?
14 The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts.
2Judah is in mourning,
Her settlements languish.
Men are bowed to the ground,
And the outcry of Jerusalem rises.
3Their nobles sent their servants for water;
They came to the cisterns, they found no water.
They returned, their vessels empty.
They are shamed and humiliated,
They cover their heads.
4a-Because of the ground there is dismay,-a
For there has been no rain on the earth.
The plowmen are shamed,
They cover their heads.
5Even the hind in the field
Forsakes her new-born fawn,
Because there is no grass.
6And the wild asses stand on the bare heights,
Snuffing the air like jackals;
Their eyes pine,
Because there is no herbage.
7Though our iniquities testify against us,
Act, O LORD, for the sake of Your name;
Though our rebellions are many
And we have sinned against You.
😯 Hope of Israel,
Its deliverer in time of trouble,
Why are You like a stranger in the land,
Like a traveler who stops only for the night?
9Why are You like a man who is stunned,
Like a warrior who cannot give victory?
Yet You are in our midst, O LORD,
And Your name is attached to us—
Do not forsake us!
10Thus said the LORD concerning this people: “Truly, they love to stray, they have not restrained their feet; so the LORD has no pleasure in them. Now He will recall their iniquity and punish their sin.”
11And the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for the benefit of this people. 12When they fast, I will not listen to their outcry; and when they present burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them. I will exterminate them by war, famine, and disease.”
13I said, “Ah, LORD GOD! The prophets are saying to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, famine shall not come upon you, but I will give you unfailing security in this place.”’
14The LORD replied: It is a lie that the prophets utter in My name. I have not sent them or commanded them. I have not spoken to them. A lying vision, an empty divination, the deceit of their own contriving— that is what they prophesy to you! 15Assuredly, thus said the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name though I have not sent them, and who say, “Sword and famine shall not
