Jeremiah 4:5-Jeremiah 6:30 - An Invasion From The North

⁵ Preach in Judah and Jerusalem, cry out and speak, "Blow the trumpets in the land, cry that every man may hear, and say, 'Gather you together, and we will go into strong cities. ⁶ Set up the token in Zion, speed you, and make no tarrying: for I will bring a great plague, and a great destruction from the north. ⁷ For the spoiler of the Gentiles is broken up from his place, as a lion out of his den, that he may make the land waste, and destroy the cities, so that no man may dwell therein. ⁸ Wherefore gird yourselves about with sackcloth, mourn, and weep, for the fearful wrath of the LORD shall not be withdrawn from you."

⁹ "At the same time," sayeth the LORD, "the heart of the kings and of the princes shall be gone, the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall be sore afraid."

¹⁰ Then said I, "O LORD God, hast thou then deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, 'Ye shall have peace,' and now the sword goeth through their lives?"

¹¹ Then shall it be said to the people and to Jerusalem, "A strong wind in the high places of the wilderness cometh through the way of my people; but neither to fan nor to cleanse. ¹² After that shall there come unto me a strong wind, and then will I also give sentence upon them."

¹³ For lo, he cometh down like as a cloud, and his chariots are like a stormy wind: his horsemen are swifter than the Eagle. Woe unto us, for we are destroyed. ¹⁴ O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be helped. How long shall thy noisesome thoughts remain with thee? ¹⁵ For a voice from Dan and from the hill of Ephraim speaketh out, and telleth of a destruction. ¹⁶ Behold, the Heathen give Jerusalem warning, and preach unto her, that her destroyers are coming from far countries. They tell the cities of Judah the same also. ¹⁷ They shall give them warning in every place, like as the watchmen in the field. For they have provoked me to wrath, sayeth the LORD. ¹⁸ Thy ways and thy thoughts have brought thee unto this. This is thy own wickedness and disobedience, that hath possessed thine heart.

¹⁹ "Ah, my belly! Ah, my belly!" shalt thou cry, "how is my heart so sore?" My heart panteth within me, I cannot be still, for I have heard the crying of the trumpets, and peals of war. ²⁰ They cry murder upon murder; the whole land shall perish. Immediately my tents were destroyed, and my hangings, in the twinkling of an eye. ²¹ How long shall I see the tokens of war, and hear the noise of the trumpets?

²² "Nevertheless this shall come upon them because my people is become foolish, and hath utterly no understanding. They are the children of foolishness, and without any discretion. To do evil, they have wit enough: but to do well, they have no wisdom."

²³ I have looked upon the earth, and see, it is waste and void. I looked toward heaven, and it had no shine. ²⁴ I beheld the mountains, and they tremble, and all the hills were in a fear. ²⁵ I looked about me, and there was nobody, and all the birds of the air were away. ²⁶ I marked well, and the plowed field was become waste: yea, all their cities were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and indignation of his wrath.

²⁷ For thus hath the LORD said, "The whole land shall be desolate, yet will I not then have done. ²⁸ And therefore let the earth mourn, and let the heaven be sorry above: for the things that I have purposed and taken upon me to do, shall not repent me, and I will not go from it."

²⁹ The whole land shall flee, for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen: they shall run into dens, into woods, and climb up the stony rocks. All the cities shall be void, and no man dwelling therein. ³⁰ What wilt thou now do, thou being destroyed? For though thou clothest thyself with scarlet, and deckest thee with gold. Though thou paintest thy face with colors, yet shalt thou trim thyself in vain. For those that hitherto have been thy great favorers, shall abhor thee, and go about to slay thee. ³¹ For, methink I hear a noise, like as it were of a woman travailing, or one laboring of her first child: Even the voice of the daughter Zion, that casteth out her arms, and swooneth, saying, "Ah woe is me! How sore vexed and faint is my heart, for them that are slain?"

¹ Look through Jerusalem, behold and see. Seek through her streets also within, if ye can find one man, that doth equal and right, or that laboureth to be faithful: and I shall spare him, sayeth the LORD. ² For though they can say, "The LORD liveth," yet do they swear to deceive. ³ Where as thou, O LORD, lookest only upon faith and truth. Thou hast scourged them, but they took no repentance: thou hast corrected them for amendment, but they refused thy correction. They made their faces harder than stone, and would not amend.

⁴ Therefore thought I in myself, "Peradventure they are so simple and foolish, that they understand nothing of the LORD's way, and judgments of our God. ⁵ Therefore will I go unto their heads and rulers, and talk with them: if they know the way of the LORD, and the judgments of our God." But these, in like manner, have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds in sunder. ⁶ Wherefore a lion out of the wood shall hurt them, and a wolf in the evening shall destroy them. The cat of the mountain shall lie lurking by their cities, to tare in pieces all them that come thereout. For their offenses are many, and their departing away is great.

⁷ "Should I then, for all this, have mercy upon thee? Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods. And albeit they were bound to me in marriage, yet they fell to adultery, and hunted harlots' houses. ⁸ In the desire of uncleanly lust they are become like the stoned horse: every man neigheth at his neighbour's wife. ⁹ Should I not correct this, sayeth the LORD? Should I not be avenged of every people, that is like unto this?

¹⁰ "Climb up upon their walls, beat them down, but destroy them not utterly: cut off their branches because they are not the LORD's. ¹¹ For unfaithfully hath the house of Israel and Judah forsaken me, sayeth the LORD. ¹² They have denied the LORD, and said, 'It is not he. Tush, there shall no misfortune come upon us; we shall see neither sword nor hunger.' ¹³ As for the warning of the Prophets, it is but wind; yea, there is not the word of God in them: such things shall happen unto themselves."

¹⁴ Wherefore thus sayeth the LORD God of Hosts, "Because ye speak such words, behold: The words that are in thy mouth will I turn to fire, and make the people to be wood, that it may consume them. ¹⁵ Lo, I will bring a people upon you from far, O house of Israel, sayeth the LORD; a mighty people, an old people, a people whose speech thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. ¹⁶ Their arrows are sudden death; yea, they themselves be very giants. ¹⁷ This people shall eat up thy fruit and thy meat; yea, they shall devour thy sons and thy daughters, thy sheep and thy bullocks. They shall eat up thy grapes and figs. As for thy strong and well-fenced cities, wherein thou didst trust, they shall destroy them with the sword.

¹⁸ Nevertheless, I will not then have done with you, sayeth the LORD. ¹⁹ But if they say, 'Wherefore doth the LORD our God all this unto us?' Then answer them, 'Because, that like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your own land, even so shall ye serve other gods also in a strange land!'" ²⁰ Preach this unto the house of Jacob, and cry it out in Judah, and say thus,

²¹ "Hear this, thou foolish and indiscreet people: ye have eyes, but ye see not; ears have ye, but ye hear not. ²² Fear ye not me, sayeth the LORD? Are ye not ashamed, to look me in the face? Which bind the sea with the sand, so that it cannot pass his bounds: for though it rage, yet can it do nothing; and though the waves thereof do swell, yet may they not go over. ²³ But this people hath a false and an obstinate heart, they are departed and gone away from me. ²⁴ They think not in their hearts, 'O let us fear the LORD our God, that giveth us rain, early and late, when need is: which keepeth ever still the harvest for us yearly.' ²⁵ "Nevertheless, your misdeeds have turned these from you, and your sins have robbed you hereof. ²⁶ For among my people are found wicked persons, that privily lay snares and wait for me, to take them and destroy them. ²⁷ And like as a net is full of birds, so are their houses full of that which they have gotten with falsity and deceit. Hereof cometh their great substance and riches, ²⁸ hereof are they fat and wealthy, and are run away from me with shameful blasphemies. They minister not the law, they make no end of the fatherless cause, they judge not the poor according to equity. ²⁹ Should I not punish these things, sayeth the LORD? Should I not be avenged of all such people as these be?"

³⁰ Horrible and grievous things are done in the land. ³¹ The Prophets teach falsely, and the priests follow them, and my people hath pleasure therein. What will come thereof at the last?

¹ Come out of Jerusalem, ye strong children of Benjamin! Blow up the trumpets ye Tekoites, set up a token unto Bethhaccherem; for a plague and a great misery peepeth out from the North. ² I will liken the daughter of Zion to a fair and tender woman, and to her shall come the shepherds with their flocks. ³ Their tents shall they pitch round about her, and every one shall feed his part with his hand. ⁴ "Make battle against her!" shall they say. "Arise, let us go up, while it is yet day!" "Alas, the day goeth away, and the night shadows fall down!" ⁵ "Arise, let us go up by night, and destroy her strongholds!"

⁶ For thus hath the LORD of Hosts commanded: "Hew down her trees, and set up bulwarks against Jerusalem. This is the city that must be punished, for in her is all maliciousness. ⁷ Like as a conduit aboundeth in water, even so this city aboundeth in wickedness. Robbery and unrighteousness is heard in her, sorrow and wounds are ever there in my sight. ⁸ Amend thee, O Jerusalem, lest I withdraw my heart from thee, and make thee desolate: and thy land also, that no man dwell in it."

⁹ For thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts, "The residue of Israel shall be gathered, as the remnant of grapes. And therefore turn thine hand again into the basket, like the grape gatherer."

¹⁰ But unto whom shall I speak, whom shall I warn, that he may take heed? Their ears are so uncircumcised, that they may not hear. Behold, they take the word of God but for a scorn, and have no lust thereto. ¹¹ And therefore I am so full of thine indignation, O LORD, that I may suffer no longer. "Shed out thy wrath upon the children that are without, and upon all young men. Yea the man must be taken prisoner with the wife, and the aged with the cripple. ¹² Their houses with their lands and wives shall be turned unto strangers, when I stretch out mine hand upon the inhabiters of this land," sayeth the LORD.

¹³ "For from the least unto the most, they hang all upon covetousness: and from the prophet unto the priest, they go all about with falsity and lies. ¹⁴ And beside that, they heal the hurt of my people with sweet words, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace at all. ¹⁵ Therefore they must be ashamed, for they have committed abomination. But how should they be ashamed, when they know nothing, neither of shame nor good nurture? And therefore they shall fall among the slain; and in the hour when I shall visit them, they shall be brought down," sayeth the LORD.

¹⁶ Thus sayeth the LORD, "Go into the streets, consider and make inquisition for the old way: and if it be the good and right way, then go therein, that ye may find rest for your souls. But they say, 'We will not walk therein.' ¹⁷ And I will set watchmen over you, and therefore take heed unto the voice of the trumpet. But they say, 'We will not take heed.'

¹⁸ Hear therefore ye Gentiles; and thou, congregation, shalt know what I have devised for them. ¹⁹ Hear thou earth also: behold, I will cause a plague come upon this people, even the fruit of their own imaginations. For they have not been obedient unto my words and to my law, but abhorred them. ²⁰ Wherefore bring ye me incense from Sheba, and sweet smelling Calamus from far countries? Your burnt offerings displease me, and I rejoice not in your sacrifices. ²¹ And therefore thus sayeth the LORD, 'Behold, I will make this people fall, and there shall fall from among them the father with the children; one neighbour shall perish with another.'"

²² Moreover, thus sayeth the LORD, "Behold, there shall come a people from the North, and a great people shall arise from the ends of the earth; ²³ with bows and with darts shall they be weaponed. It is a rough and fierce people, an unmerciful people: their voice roareth like the sea, they ride upon horses well appointed to the battle against thee, O daughter Zion!"

²⁴ Then shall this cry be heard, "Our arms are feeble! Heaviness and sorrow is come upon us, as upon a woman travailing with child! ²⁵ No man go forth into the field, no man come upon the high street: for the sword and fear of the enemy shall be on every side!" ²⁶ Wherefore, gird a sackcloth about thee, O daughter of my people; sprinkle thyself with ashes, mourn and weep bitterly, as upon the only beloved son: for the destroyer shall suddenly fall upon us.

²⁷ "Thee have I set for a prover of my hard people, to seek out and to try their ways. ²⁸ For they are all unfaithful and fallen away, they hang upon filthy lucre; they are clean brass and iron, for they hurt and destroyed every man. ²⁹ The bellows are burnt in the fire, the lead is consumed, the melter melteth in vain, for the evil is not taken away from them. ³⁰ Therefore shall they be called reprobate silver, because the LORD hath cast them out."