17And do you speak to them thus:
Let my eyes run with tears,
Day and night let them not cease,
For b-my hapless people-b has suffered
A grievous injury, a very painful wound.
18If I go out to the country—
Lo, the slain of the sword.
If I enter the city—
Lo, c-those who are sick with-c famine.
Both priest and prophet roama the land,
They know not where.
19Have You, then, rejected Judah?
Have You spurned Zion?
Why have You smitten us
So that there is no cure?
Why do we hope for happiness,
But find no good;
For a time of healing,
And meet terror instead?
20We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD—
The iniquity of our fathers—
For we have sinned against You.
21For Your name’s sake, do not disown us;
Do not dishonor Your glorious throne.
Remember, do not annul Your covenant with us.
22Can any of the false gods of the nations give rain?
Can the skies of themselves give showers?
Only You can, O LORD our God!
So we hope in You,
For only You made all these things.
15 The LORD said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were to a- intercede with Me,-a I would not be won over to that people. Dismiss them from My presence, and let them go forth! 2And if they ask you, ‘To what shall we go forth?’ answer them, ‘Thus said the LORD:
Those destined for the plague, to the plague;
Those destined for the sword, to the sword;
Those destined for famine, to famine;
Those destined for captivity, to captivity.
3And I will appoint over them four kindsb [of punishment]—declares the LORD—the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the sky, and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, on account of King Manasseh son of Hezekiah of Judah, and of what he did in Jerusalem.’ ”
5But who will pity you, O Jerusalem,
Who will console you?
Who will turn aside to inquire
About your welfare?
6You cast Me off
—declares the LORD—
You go ever backward.
So I have stretched out My hand to destroy you;
I cannot relent.
7I will scatter them as with a winnowing fork
Through the settlements of the earth.
I will bereave, I will destroy My people,
For they would not turn back from their ways.
8Their widows shall be more numerous
Than the sands of the seas.
I will bring against them—
b-Young men and mothers together-b—
A destroyer at noonday.
I will bring down suddenly upon them
Alarmb and terror.
9She who bore seven is forlorn,
Utterly disconsolate;
Her sun has set while it is still day,
She is shamed and humiliated.
The remnant of them I will deliver to the sword,
To the power of their enemies
—declares the LORD.
10Woe is me, my mother, that you ever bore me—
A man of conflict and strife with all the land!
I have not lent,
And I have not borrowed;
Yet everyone curses me.
11The LORD said:
b-Surely, a mere remnant of you
Will I spare for a better fate!-b
By the enemy c-from the north-c
In a time of distress and a time of disaster,
Surely, I will have you struck down!
12d-Can iron break iron and bronze?-d
13b-I will hand over your wealth and your treasures
As a spoil, free of charge,
Because of all your sins throughout your territory.
14And I will bring your enemies
By way of a land you have not known.-b
For a fire has flared in My wrath,
It blazes against you.
15O LORD, you know—
Remember me and take thought of me,
Avenge me on those who persecute me;
Do not yield to Your patience,
e-Do not let me perish!-e
Consider how I have borne insult
On Your account.
16When Your words were offered, I devoured them;
Your word brought me the delight and joy
Of knowing that Your name is attached to me,
O LORD, God of Hosts.
17I have not sat in the company of revelers
And made merry!
I have sat lonely because of Your hand upon me,
For You have filled me with gloom.
18Why must my pain be endless,
My wound incurable,
Resistant to healing?
You have been to me like a spring that fails,
Like waters that cannot be relied on.
19Assuredly, thus said the LORD:
If you turn back, I shall take you back
And you shall stand before Me;
If you produce what is noble
Out of the worthless,
You shall be My spokesman.
They shall come back to you,
Not you to them.
20Against this people I will make you
As a fortified wall of bronze:
They will attack you,
But they shall not overcome you,
For I am with you to deliver and save you
—declares the LORD.
21I will save you from the hands of the wicked
And rescue you from the clutches of the violent.
16 The word of the LORD came to me:
2You are not to marry and not to have sons and daughters in this place. 3For thus said the LORD concerning any sons and daughters that may be born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bear them, and concerning the fathers who beget them in this land: 4They shall die gruesome deaths. They shall not be lamented or buried; they shall be like dung on the surface of the ground. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.
5For thus said the LORD:
Do not enter a house of mourning,a
Do not go to lament and to condole with them;
For I have withdrawn My favor from that people
—declares the LORD—
My kindness and compassion.
6Great and small alike shall die in this land,
They shall not be buried; men shall not lament them,
Nor gash and tonsure themselves for them.
7They shall not break breadb for a mournerc
To comfort him for a bereavement,
Nor offer one a cup of consolation
For the loss of his father or mother.
8Nor shall you enter a house of feasting,
To sit down with them to eat and drink.
9For thus said the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to banish from this place, in your days and before your eyes, the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of bridegroom and bride.
10And when you announce all these things to that people, and they ask you, “Why has the LORD decreed upon us all this fearful evil? What is the iniquity and what the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?” 11say to them, “Because your fathers deserted Me—declares the LORD—and followed other gods and served them and worshiped them; they deserted Me and did not keep My Instruction. 12And you have acted worse than your fathers, every one of you following the willfulness of his evil heart and paying no heed to Me. 13Therefore I will hurl you out of this land to a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods, day and night; for I will show you no mercy.”
14Assuredly, a time is coming—declares the LORD—when it shall no more be said, “As the LORD lives who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt,” 15but rather, “As the LORD lives who brought the Israelites out of the northland, and out of all the lands to which He had banished them.” For I will bring them back to their land, which I gave to their fathers.
16Lo, I am sending for many fishermen
—declares the LORD—
And they shall haul them out;
And after that I will send for many hunters,
And they shall hunt them
Out of every mountain and out of every hill
And out of the clefts of the rocks.
17For My eyes are on all their ways,
They are not hidden from My presence,
Their iniquity is not concealed from My sight.
18I will pay them in fulld—
Nay, doubly for their iniquity and their sins—
Because they have defiled My land
With the corpses of their abominations,e
And have filled My own possession
With their abhorrent things.
19O LORD, my strength and my stronghold,
My refuge in a day of trouble,
To You nations shall come
From the ends of the earth and say:
Our fathers inherited utter delusions,
Things that are futile and worthless.
20Can a man make gods for himself?
No-gods are they!
21Assuredly, I will teach them,
Once and for all I will teach them
My power and My might.
And they shall learn that My name is LORD.
17
The guilt of Judah is inscribed
With a stylus of iron,
Engraved with an adamant point
On the tablet of their hearts,
a-And on the horns of their altars,
2While their children remember-a
Their altars and sacred posts,
By verdant trees,
Upon lofty hills.
3b-Because of the sin of your shrines
Throughout your borders,
I will make your rampart a heap in the field,
And all your treasures a spoil.-b
4c-You will forfeit,-c by your own act,
The inheritance I have given you;
I will make you a slave to your enemies
In a land you have never known.
For you have kindled the flame of My wrath
Which shall burn for all time.
5Thus said the LORD:
Cursed is he who trusts in man,
Who makes mere flesh his strength,
And turns his thoughts from the LORD.
6He shall be like a bushd in the desert,
Which does not sense the coming of good:
It is set in the scorched places of the wilderness,
In a barren land without inhabitant.
7Blessed is he who trusts in the LORD,
Whose trust is the LORD alone.
8He shall be like a tree planted by waters,
Sending forth its roots by a stream:
It does not sense the coming of heat,
Its leaves are ever fresh;
It has no care in a year of drought,
It does not cease to yield fruit.
9Most devious is the heart;
It is perverse—who can fathom it?
10I the LORD probe the heart,
Search the mind—
To repay every man according to his ways,
With the proper fruit of his deeds.
11b-Like a partridge hatching what she did not lay,-b
So is
