And on the assembly of young men together;

  For even the husband shall be taken with the wife,

  The aged with him who is full of days.

  12And mtheir houses shall be turned over to others,

  Fields and wives together;

  For I will stretch out My hand

  Against the inhabitants of the land,” says the LORD.

  13“Because from the least of them even to the greatest of them,

  Everyone is given to ncovetousness;

  And from the prophet even to the opriest,

  Everyone deals falsely.

  14They have also phealed the 3hurt of My people 4slightly,

  q Saying, ‘Peace, peace!’

  When there is no peace.

  15Were they rashamed when they had committed abomination?

  No! They were not at all ashamed;

  Nor did they know how to blush.

  Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;

  At the time I punish them,

  They shall be cast down,” says the LORD.

  16Thus says the LORD:

  “Stand in the ways and see,

  And ask for the sold paths, where the good way is,

  And walk in it;

  Then you will find trest for your souls.

  But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

  17Also, I set uwatchmen over you, saying,

  v‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’

  But they said, ‘We will not listen.’

  18Therefore hear, you nations,

  And know, O congregation, what is among them.

  19w Hear, O earth!

  Behold, I will certainly bring xcalamity on this people—

  y The fruit of their thoughts,

  Because they have not heeded My words

  Nor My law, but rejected it.

  20z For what purpose to Me

  Comes frankincense afrom Sheba,

  And bsweet cane from a far country?

  c Your burnt offerings are not acceptable,

  Nor your sacrifices sweet to Me.”

  21Therefore thus says the LORD:

  “Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people,

  And the fathers and the sons together shall fall on them.

  The neighbor and his friend shall perish.”

  22Thus says the LORD:

  “Behold, a people comes from the dnorth country,

  And a great nation will be raised from the farthest parts of the earth.

  23They will lay hold on bow and spear;

  They are cruel and have no mercy;

  Their voice eroars like the sea;

  And they ride on horses,

  As men of war set in array against you, O daughter of Zion.”

  24We have heard the report of it;

  Our hands grow feeble.

  f Anguish has taken hold of us,

  Pain as of a woman in 5labor.

  25Do not go out into the field,

  Nor walk by the way.

  Because of the sword of the enemy,

  Fear is on every side.

  26O daughter of my people,

  g Dress in sackcloth

  h And roll about in ashes!

  i Make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation;

  For the plunderer will suddenly come upon us.

  27“I have set you as an assayer and ja fortress among My people,

  That you may know and test their way.

  28k They are all stubborn rebels, lwalking as slanderers.

  They are mbronze and iron,

  They are all corrupters;

  29The bellows blow fiercely,

  The lead is consumed by the fire;

  The smelter refines in vain,

  For the wicked are not drawn off.

  30People will call them nrejected silver,

  Because the LORD has rejected them.”

  Jeremiah 7

  Trusting in Lying Words

  (cf. Jer. 26:4–6)

  1The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

  2a“Stand in 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 in at these gates to worship the LORD!’ ”

  3Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: b“Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

  4c“Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.’

  5“For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly dexecute 1judgment between a man and his neighbor,

  6“if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, eor walk after other gods to your hurt,

  7f“then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in gthe land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

  8“Behold, you trust in hlying words that cannot profit.

  9i“Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and jwalk after other gods whom you do not know,

  10k“and then come and stand before Me in this house lwhich is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?

  11“Has mthis house, which is called by My name, become a nden of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the LORD.

  12“But go now to oMy place which was in Shiloh, pwhere I set My name at the first, and see qwhat I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

  13“And now, because you have done all these works,” says the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rrising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I scalled you, but you did not answer,

  14“therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to tShiloh.

  15“And I will cast you out of My sight, uas I have cast out all your brethren—vthe whole posterity of Ephraim.

  16“Therefore wdo not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; xfor I will not hear you.

  17“Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

  18y“The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they zpour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger.

  19a“Do they provoke Me to anger?” says the LORD. “Do they not provoke themselves, to the shame of their own faces?”

  20Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place—on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and not be quenched.”

  21Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: b“Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat.

  22c“For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.

  23“But this is what I commanded them, saying, d‘Obey My voice, and eI will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’

  24f“Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but gfollowed2 the counsels and the 3dictates of their evil hearts, and hwent4 backward and not forward.

  25“Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even isent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.

  26j“Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but kstiffened their neck. lThey did worse than their fathers.

  27“Therefore myou shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.

  Judgment on Obscene Religion

  28“So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nnor receive correction. oTruth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.

  29p‘Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’

  30“For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the LORD. q“They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to 5pollute it.

  31“And they have built the rhigh places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to sburn their sons and their daughters in the fire, twhich I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.

  32“Therefore behold, uthe days are coming,” says the LORD, “when it will no more be called Tophet, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; vfor they will bury in Tophet until there is no room.

  33“The wcorpses of this people will be food for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. And no one will frighten them away.

  34“Then I will cause to xcease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. For ythe land shall be desolate.

  Jeremiah 8

  Jeremiah Mourns for His People

  1“At that time,” says the LORD, “they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves.

  2“They shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served and after which they have walked, which they have sought and awhich they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered bnor buried; they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth.

  3“Then cdeath shall be chosen rather than life by all the 1residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says the LORD of hosts.

  The Peril of False Teaching

  4“Moreover you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD:

  “Will they fall and not rise?

  Will one turn away and not return?

  5Why has this people dslidden back,

  Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding?

  e They hold fast to deceit,

  f They refuse to return.

  6g I listened and heard,

  But they do not speak aright.

  h No man repented of his wickedness,

  Saying, ‘What have I done?’

  Everyone turned to his own course,

  As the horse rushes into the battle.

  7“Even ithe stork in the heavens

  Knows her appointed times;

  And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow

  Observe the time of their coming.

  But jMy people do not know the judgment of the LORD.

  8“How can you say, ‘We are wise,

  k And the law of the LORD is with us’?

  Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood.

  9l The wise men are ashamed,

  They are dismayed and taken.

  Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD;

  So mwhat wisdom do they have?

  10Therefore nI will give their wives to others,

  And their fields to those who will inherit them;

  Because from the least even to the greatest

  Everyone is given to ocovetousness;

  From the prophet even to the priest

  Everyone deals falsely.

  11For they have phealed the hurt of the daughter of My people 2slightly,

  Saying, q‘Peace, peace!’

  When there is no peace.

  12Were they rashamed when they had committed abomination?

  No! They were not at all ashamed,

  Nor did they know how to blush.

  Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;

  In the time of their punishment

  They shall be cast down,” says the LORD.

  13“I will surely 3consume them,” says the LORD.

  “No grapes shall be son the vine,

  Nor figs on the tfig tree,

  And the leaf shall fade;

  And the things I have given them shall upass away from them.” ’ ”

  14“Why do we sit still?

  v Assemble yourselves,

  And let us enter the fortified cities,

  And let us be silent there.

  For the LORD our God has put us to silence

  And given us wwater4 of gall to drink,

  Because we have sinned against the LORD.

  15“ We xlooked for peace, but no good came;

  And for a time of health, and there was trouble!

  16The snorting of His horses was heard from yDan.

  The whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of His zstrong ones;

  For they have come and devoured the land and all that is in it,

  The city and those who dwell in it.”

  17“For behold, I will send serpents among you,

  Vipers which cannot be acharmed,

  And they shall bite you,” says the LORD.

  The Prophet Mourns for the People

  18I would comfort myself in sorrow;

  My heart is faint in me.

  19Listen! The voice,

  The cry of the daughter of my people

  From ba far country:

  “Is not the LORD in Zion?

  Is not her King in her?”

  “Why have they provoked Me to anger

  With their carved images—

  With foreign idols?”

  20“The harvest is past,

  The summer is ended,

  And we are not saved!”

  21c For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt.

  I am dmourning;

  Astonishment has taken hold of me.

  22Is there no ebalm in Gilead,

  Is there no physician there?

  Why then is there no recovery

  For the health of the daughter of my people?

  Jeremiah 9

  Disobedience Brings God’s Judgment

  1Oh, athat my head were waters,

  And my eyes a fountain of tears,

  That I might weep day and night

  For the slain of the daughter of my people!

  2Oh, that I had in the wilderness

  A lodging place for travelers;

  That I might leave my people,

  And go from them!

  For bthey are all adulterers,

  An assembly of treacherous men.

  3“And like their bow cthey have bent their tongues for lies.

  They are not valiant for the truth on the earth.

  For they proceed from devil to evil,

  And they edo not know Me,” says the LORD.

  4“Everyonef take heed to his 1neighbor,

  And do not trust any brother;

  For every brother will utterly supplant,

  And every neighbor will gwalk with slanderers.

  5Everyone will hdeceive his neighbor,

  And will not speak the truth;

  They have taught their tongue to speak lies;

  They weary themselves to commit iniquity.

  6Your dwelling place is in the midst of deceit;

  Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” says the LORD.

  7Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts:

  “Behold, iI will refine them and 2try them;

  j For how shall I deal with the daughter of My people?

  8Their tongue is an arrow shot out;

  It speaks kdeceit;

  One speaks lpeaceably to his neighbor with his mouth,

  But 3in his heart he 4lies in wait.

  9m Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the LORD.

  “Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?”

  10I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,

  And nfor the 5dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation,

  Because they are burned up,

  So that no one can pass through;

  Nor can men hear the voice of the cattle.

  o Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled;

  They are gone.

  11“I will make Jerusalem pa heap of ruins, qa den of jackals.

  I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.”

  12rWho is the wise man who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through?

  13And the LORD said, “Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have snot obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it,

  14“but they have twalked according to the 6dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, uwhich their fathers taught them,”

  15therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will vfeed them, this people, wwith wormwood, and give them 7water of gall to drink.

  16“I will xscatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. yAnd I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them.”

  The People Mourn in Judgment

  17Thus says the LORD of hosts:

  “Consider and call for zthe mourning women,

  That they may come;

  And send for skillful wailing women,

  That they may come.

  18Let them make haste

  And take up a wailing for us,

  That aour eyes may run with tears,

  And our eyelids gush with water.

  19For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion:

  ‘How we are plundered!

  We are greatly ashamed,

  Because we have forsaken the land,

  Because we have been cast out of bour dwellings.’ ”

  20Yet hear the word of the LORD, O women,

  And let your ear receive the word of His mouth;

  Teach your daughters wailing,

  And everyone her neighbor a lamentation.

  21For death has come through our windows,

  Has entered our palaces,

  To kill off cthe children—8no longer to be outside!

  And the young men—9no longer on the streets!

  22Speak, “Thus says the LORD:

  ‘Even the carcasses of men shall fall das refuse on the open field,

 

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