Jeremiah 3-4

Jeremiah 3

¹Saying, ‘Lo, one sendeth away his wife, And she hath gone from him, And she hath been to another man, Doth he turn back unto her again? Greatly defiled is not that land? And thou hast committed whoredom with many lovers, And turn again to Me, an affirmation of Jehovah.

²Lift thine eyes to the high places, and see, Where hast thou not been lain with? On the ways thou hast sat for them, As an Arab in a wilderness, And thou defilest the land, By thy fornications, and by thy wickedness.

³And withheld are showers, and gathered rain hath not been. The forehead of a whorish woman thou hast, Thou hast refused to be ashamed.

⁴Hast thou not henceforth called to Me, ‘My father, Thou art the leader of my youth?

⁵Doth He keep to the age? watch for ever?' Lo, these things thou hast spoken, And thou dost the evil things, and prevailest.

⁶And Jehovah saith unto me, in the days of Josiah the king, ‘Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? She is going on every high mountain, and unto the place of every green tree, and committeth fornication there.

⁷And I say, after her doing all these, Unto Me thou dost turn back, and she hath not turned back, and see it doth her treacherous sister Judah.

⁸And I see when (for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery) I have sent her away, and I give the bill of her divorce unto her, that treacherous Judah her sister hath not feared, and goeth and committeth fornication -- she also.

⁹And it hath come to pass, from the vileness of her fornication, that the land is defiled, and she committeth fornication with stone and with wood.

¹⁰And even in all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned back unto Me with all her heart, but with falsehood, an affirmation of Jehovah.'

¹¹And Jehovah saith unto me: ‘Justified herself hath backsliding Israel, More than treacherous Judah.

¹²Go, and thou hast proclaimed these words toward the north, and hast said, Turn back, O backsliding Israel, An affirmation of Jehovah! I cause not Mine anger to fall upon you, For I am kind, an affirmation of Jehovah, I watch not to the age.

¹³Only, know thine iniquity, For against Jehovah thy God thou hast transgressed, And thou dost scatter thy ways to strangers, Under every green tree, And to My voice thou hast not hearkened, An affirmation of Jehovah.

¹⁴Turn back, O backsliding sons, An affirmation of Jehovah. For I have ruled over you, And taken you one of a city, and two of a family, And have brought you to Zion,

¹⁵And I have given to you shepherds According to Mine own heart, And they have fed you with knowledge and understanding.

¹⁶And it hath come to pass, when ye are multiplied, And have been fruitful in the land, In those days -- an affirmation of Jehovah, They say not any more, ‘The ark of the covenant of Jehovah,' Nor doth it go up on the heart, Nor do they remember concerning it, Nor do they inspect, nor is it made again.

¹⁷At that time they cry to Jerusalem, ‘O throne of Jehovah,' And gathered unto her hath been all the nations, For the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem, Nor do they go any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

¹⁸In those days do the house of Judah Go unto the house of Israel, And they come together from the land of the south, unto the land That I caused your fathers to inherit.

¹⁹And I have said, How do I put thee among the sons, And give to thee a desirable land, A beauteous inheritance of the hosts of nations, And I say, My father -- ye do call to Me, And from after Me ye do not turn back.

²⁰But -- a woman hath deceived her friend, So ye have dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, an affirmation of Jehovah.

²¹A voice on high places is heard -- weeping, Supplications of the sons of Israel, For they have made perverse their way, They have forgotten Jehovah their God.

²²Turn back, O backsliding sons, I cause your backslidings to cease. -- Behold us, we have come to Thee, For Thou art Jehovah our God.

²³Surely in vain from the heights, The multitude of mountains -- Surely in Jehovah our God is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴And the shameful thing hath devoured The labour of our fathers from our youth, Their flock and their herd, Their sons and their daughters.

²⁵We have lain down in our shame, and cover us doth our confusion, For against Jehovah our God we have sinned, We, and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, Nor have we hearkened to the voice of Jehovah our God!

Jeremiah 4

¹If thou dost turn back, O Israel, An affirmation of Jehovah, unto Me turn back, And if thou dost turn aside Thine abominations from My face, Then thou dost not bemoan.

²And thou hast sworn -- Jehovah liveth, In truth, in judgment, and in righteousness, And blessed themselves in Him have nations, And in Him they boast themselves.

³For thus said Jehovah, To the man of Judah, and to Jerusalem: Till for yourselves tillage, And do not sow unto the thorns.

⁴Be circumcised to Jehovah, And turn aside the foreskins of your heart, O man of Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, Lest My fury go out as fire, and hath burned, And there is none quenching, Because of the evil of your doings.

⁵Declare in Judah, and in Jerusalem sound, And say ye, ‘Blow a trumpet in the land,' Call ye fully, and say ye: ‘Be gathered, and we go in to the fenced city.'

⁶Lift up an ensign Zionward, Strengthen yourselves, stand not still, For evil I am bringing in from the north, And a great destruction.

⁷Gone up hath a lion from his thicket, And a destroyer of nations hath journeyed, He hath come forth from his place To make thy land become a desolation, Thy cities are laid waste, without inhabitant.

⁸For this, gird on sackcloth, lament and howl, For the fierce anger of Jehovah hath not turned back from us.

⁹And it hath come to pass, in that day, An affirmation of Jehovah: ‘Perish doth the heart of the king, And the heart of the princes, And astonished have been the priests, And the prophets do wonder.'

¹⁰And I say, ‘Ah, Lord Jehovah, Surely thou hast entirely forgotten this people and Jerusalem, saying, Peace is for you, And struck hath a sword unto the soul!'

¹¹At that time it is said of this people, And of Jerusalem: ‘A dry wind of high places in the wilderness,' The way of the daughter of My people, (Not for winnowing, nor for cleansing,)

¹²A full wind from these doth come for Me, Now, also, I speak judgments with them.

¹³Lo, as clouds he cometh up, And as a hurricane his chariots, Lighter than eagles have been his horses, Wo to us, for we have been spoiled.

¹⁴Wash from evil thy heart, O Jerusalem, That thou mayest be saved, Till when dost thou lodge in thy heart Thoughts of thy strength?

¹⁵For a voice is declaring from Dan, And sounding sorrow from mount Ephraim.

¹⁶Make ye mention to the nations, Lo, sound ye to Jerusalem: ‘Besiegers are coming from the land afar off, And they give forth against cities of Judah their voice.

¹⁷As the keepers of a field They have been against her round about, For with Me she hath been rebellious, An affirmation of Jehovah.'

¹⁸Thy way and thy doings have done these to thee, This is thy vexation, for it is bitter, For it hath struck unto thy heart.

¹⁹My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at the walls of my heart, Make a noise for me doth My heart, I am not silent, For the voice of a trumpet I have heard, O my soul -- a shout of battle!

²⁰Destruction on destruction is proclaimed, For spoiled hath been all the land, Suddenly spoiled have been my tents, In a moment -- my curtains.

²¹Till when do I see an ensign? Do I hear the voice of a trumpet?

²²For my people are foolish, me they have not known, Foolish sons are they, yea, they are not intelligent, Wise are they to do evil, And to do good they have not known.

²³I looked to the land, and lo, waste and void, And unto the heavens, and their light is not.

²⁴I have looked to the mountains, And lo, they are trembling. And all the hills moved themselves lightly.

²⁵I have looked, and lo, man is not, And all fowls of the heavens have fled.

²⁶I have looked, and lo, The fruitful place is a wilderness, And all its cities have been broken down, Because of Jehovah, Because of the fierceness of His anger.

²⁷For thus said Jehovah: All the land is a desolation, but a completion I make not.

²⁸For this doth the land mourn, And black have been the heavens above, because I have spoken -- I have purposed, And I have not repented, Nor do I turn back from it.

²⁹From the voice of the horseman, And of him shooting with the bow, all the city is fleeing, They have come into thickets, And on cliffs they have gone up, All the city is forsaken, And there is no one dwelling in them.

³⁰And thou, O spoiled one, what dost thou? For thou puttest on scarlet, For thou adornest thyself with ornaments of gold. For thou rendest with pain thine eyes, In vain thou dost make thyself fair, Kicked against thee have doting ones, Thy life they do seek.

³¹For a voice as of a sick woman I have heard, Distress, as of one bringing forth a first-born, The voice of the daughter of Zion, She bewaileth herself, she spreadeth out her hands, ‘Wo to me now, for weary is my soul of slayers!'