Hear now this, O foolish people, and no heart; eyes to them and they will not see; and ears to them, and they will not hear:

Fear ye not me? saith Jehovah: will ye not tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it? and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it.

And they said not in their heart, Now will we fear Jehovah our God, giving rain, and the early and latter rain in its time: the appointed sevenths of harvest he will watch for us

for evil ones were found among my people: he will look about as the stooping of fowlers; they set snares, they will take men.

As a cane full of birds, so their houses full of deceit: for this they were magnified and they will be rich.

They became fat, they shone: they passed over words of evil: they judged not judgment, the judgment of the orphan, and they will give success; and the judgment of the needy they judged not.

Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?

The prophets prophesy falsely,
And the priests rule on their own authority;
And My people love [to have] it so!
But what will you do when the end comes?

"Run for safety, people of Benjamin! Get out of Jerusalem! Sound the trumpet in Tekoa! Light the signal fires at Beth Hakkerem! For disaster lurks out of the north; it will bring great destruction.

“I will destroy the Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem), the lovely and delicate one [so like a luxurious pasture].

Keepers of sheep with their flocks will come to her; they will put up their tents round her; everyone will get food in his place.

They will say, 'Prepare to do battle against it! Come on! Let's attack it at noon!' But later they will say, 'Oh, oh! Too bad! The day is almost over and the shadows of evening are getting long.

Arise, and we will go up in the night, and we will destroy her fortresses.

As a pit, letting flow her waters, so she dug up her evil: violence and oppression will be heard in her; upon my face continually disease and smiting.

Undergo teaching, O Jerusalem, or my soul will be turned away from you, and I will make you a waste, an unpeopled land.

This is what the Lord of armies has said: Everything will be taken from the rest of Israel as the last grapes are taken from the vine; let your hand be turned to the small branches, like one pulling off grapes.

To whom will I speak and give a warning so they'll listen? Look, their ears are closed, and they cannot hear. Look, this message from the LORD is contemptible to them; they don't delight in it.

But I am full of the wrath (judgment) of the Lord;
I am tired of restraining it.
“[I will] pour it out on the children in the street
And on the young men gathered together;
For both the husband and wife shall be taken,
The aged and the very old [though full of days they are not exempt from judgment].

“Their houses shall be turned over to others,
Their fields and their wives together;
For I will stretch out My hand
Against the inhabitants of the land,” says the Lord.

They offer only superficial help for the harm my people have suffered. They say, 'Everything will be all right!' But everything is not all right!

Let them be put to shame because they have done disgusting things. They had no shame, they were not able to become red with shame: so they will come down with those who are falling: when my punishment comes on them, they will be made low, says the Lord.

Thus says the Lord,
“Stand by the roads and look; ask for the ancient paths,
Where the good way is; then walk in it,
And you will find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it!’

“I have set watchmen (prophets) over you,
Saying, ‘Listen and pay attention to the [warning] sound of the trumpet!’
But they said, ‘We will not listen.’

“Therefore hear, O [Gentile] nations,
And see, O congregation, what [vengeful act] is to be done to them.

Give ear, O earth: see, I will make evil come on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not given attention to my words, and they would have nothing to do with my law.

Therefore, thus says the Lord,

“Behold, I am laying stumbling blocks before this people.
The fathers and the sons together
Will stumble against them;
The neighbor and his friend will perish.”

The Lord has said, See, a people is coming from the north country, a great nation will be put in motion from the inmost parts of the earth.

Bow and javelin, shall they grasp, Cruel, is he! So they will not have compassion, Their voice, like the sea, will roar, And on horses, will they ride, - Arrayed each one, like a man for battle, Against thee, O daughter of Zion!

O daughter of my people [says Jeremiah],
Clothe yourself in sackcloth and wallow in ashes;
Mourn [aloud] as for an only son,
A most bitter cry [of sorrow and regret],
For suddenly the destroyer will come upon us [on both prophet and people].

They call them rejected silver [only dross, without value],
Because the Lord has rejected them.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Change your ways and your behavior, and I will let you live in this place.

Do not trust in the deceptive and lying words [of the false prophets who claim that Jerusalem will be protected by God because of the temple], saying, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

"For if ye will amend your ways and counsels, if ye will judge right betwixt a man and his neighbour;

If ye will not oppress the stranger, the fatherless and the widow; if ye will not shed innocent blood in this place; if ye will not cleave to strange gods to your own destruction;

then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers [to live in] forever and ever.

"'But just look at you! You are putting your confidence in a false belief that will not deliver you.

Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear [oaths] falsely, offer sacrifices or burn incense to Baal, and follow after other gods that you have not known,

And will ye then come in and stand before me in this house whereon my Name hath been called, and say, - We have set ourselves free, - for the purpose of committing all these abominations?

And now, because ye did all these works, says Jehovah, and I will speak to you, rising early and speaking, and ye heard not; and I will call you and ye answered not;

therefore, I will do to this house (the temple) which is called by My Name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, just as I did to Shiloh.

I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers (relatives through Jacob), all the descendants of Ephraim.

“Therefore, do not pray for this people [of Judah] or lift up a cry or entreaty for them or make intercession to Me, for I do not hear you.

Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and [the fire will] not be quenched.”

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the meat.

But this thing I did command them: ‘Listen to and obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, so that it may be well with you.’

From the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt even to this day, and I will send to you all my servants the prophets, in the day rising early and sending:

And they heard not to me and they inclined not their ear, and they will harden their neck: they did evil above their fathers.

“You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall [also] call to them, but they will not answer you.

You will say to them, "This is the nation that wouldn't listen to the voice of the LORD its God and wouldn't accept correction. Truth has perished; it has been eliminated from their discussions.'

“Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of the Slaughter, for [in bloody warfare] they will bury [the dead] in Topheth until there is no more room.

And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth and no one will frighten them away.

Then I will cause the voices of joy and gladness, and the voices of the bridegroom and the bride to vanish from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem; for the land will become a ruin—a wasteland.

“At that time,” says the Lord, “they [the Babylonian army] will bring out from their graves the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

They will [carelessly scatter and] spread them out before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which the dead have loved and which they have served, and which they have walked after and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered or be buried; they will be like dung on the face of the earth.

And death will be desired more than life by the rest of this evil family who are still living in all the places where I have sent them away, says the Lord of armies.

Further, you are to say to them, This is what the Lord has said: Will those who are falling not be lifted up again? will he who has gone away not come back?

Why do these people of Jerusalem go back, for ever turning away? they will not give up their deceit, they will not come back.

For I have looked, and considered: but there is no man that speaketh a good word. There is no man that taketh repentance for his sin, that will so much as say, 'Wherefore have I done this?' But every man, as soon as he is turned back, runneth forth still, like a wild horse in a battle.

The Stork knoweth her appointed time; the Turtledove, the Swallow and the Crane consider the time of their travail: but my people will not know the time of the punishment of the LORD.

The wise men will be put to shame. They'll be dismayed and taken captive. Look, they have rejected the message from the LORD! So what kind of wisdom do they have?

“Therefore I will give their wives to others
And their fields to new owners;
Because from the least even to the greatest
Everyone is greedy for [unjust] gain;
From the prophet even to the priest
Everyone practices deceit and deals in corruption.

They offer only superficial help for the hurt my dear people have suffered. They say, "Everything will be all right!" But everything is not all right!

Let them be put to shame because they have done disgusting things. They had no shame, they were not able to become red with shame: so they will come down with those who are falling: in the time of their punishment they will be made low, says the Lord.

“I will gather and snatch them away [utterly consuming them],” says the Lord.
“There will be no grapes on the vine,
Nor figs on the fig tree,
And even the leaf will wither;
And the things that I have given them will pass away [by the hand of those whom I have appointed].”’”

For what are we sitting? gather ye together and we will go into the fortified cities, and we shall be silent there: for Jehovah our God caused us to cease, and he will give us to drink the water of poison, for we sinned against Jehovah.

From Dan was heard the snorting of his horses; from the voice of the neighings of his strong ones all the land trembled: and they will come and cut up the land, and its fulness; the city and those dwelling in it

See, I will send snakes and poison-snakes among you, against which the wonder-worker has no power; and they will give you wounds which may not be made well, says the Lord.

O Who will give my head water enough, and a well of tears for mine eyes, that I may weep night and day for the slaughter of my people?

Who will give me in the desert a lodging-place of travelers? and I will leave my people and go from them, for they all commit adultery; an assembly of those acting faithlessly.

And they will bend their tongue, their bow, a lie: and they were not strong for faithfulness upon the land; for from evil to evil they went forth, and they knew me not, says Jehovah.

Let everyone keep watch on his neighbour, and put no faith in any brother: for every brother will certainly be tricking his brother, and every neighbour will go about saying evil.

Everyone will make sport of his neighbour with deceit, not saying what is true: their tongues have been trained to say false words; they are twisted, hating to come back.

They have set their stole in the midst of deceit, and for very dissembling falsity they will not know me, sayeth the LORD.

Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts,

“Behold, I will refine them [through suffering] and test them;
For how else should I deal with the daughter of My people?

Their tongue a deadly arrow, speaking deceit; in his mouth he will speak peace to his neighbor, and be will lay his wait in his midst

Am I not to send punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?

“I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,
And a [funeral] dirge for the pastures of the wilderness,
Because they are burned up and desolated so that no one passes through [them];
Nor can anyone hear the lowing of cattle.
Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they are gone.

“I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
A haunt and dwelling place of jackals;
And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

Who the wise man and he will understand this? and which the mouth of Jehovah spake to him, and he will announce it, for what the land perished it was burnt as the desert, from not being passed through.

And Jehovah will say, For their forsaking my law which I gave before their face, and they heard not to my voice, and they went not in it.

therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them bitter and poisonous water to drink.

I will [also] scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them until I have annihilated them.”

For the sound of wailing is soon to be heard in Zion. They will wail, 'We are utterly ruined! We are completely disgraced! For our houses have been torn down and we must leave our land.'"

The bodies of men will be falling like waste on the open fields, and like grain dropped by the grain-cutter, and no one will take them up.

But who so will rejoice, let him rejoice in this: that he understandeth, and knoweth me. For I am the LORD, which do mercy, equity and righteousness upon the earth. Therefore have I pleasure in such things, sayeth the LORD."

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I will punish all who are circumcised [physically] and yet uncircumcised [spiritually]—

That is, I will punish the Egyptians, the Judeans, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and all the desert people who cut their hair short at the temples. I will do so because none of the people of those nations are really circumcised in the Lord's sight. Moreover, none of the people of Israel are circumcised when it comes to their hearts."

Thus said Jehovah, Ye shall not learn according to the way of the nations, and from the signs of the heavens ye shall not be terrified; for the nations will be terrified from them.

“They adorn the idol with silver and with gold;
They fasten it with hammers and nails
So that it will not fall apart.

They are of turned work, as the palm tree, and they shall not speak; being lifted up they shall be lifted up, for they shall not mount up. Ye shall not be afraid of them, for they will not do evil, and also doing good is not with them.

And in one they will become brutish, and they will be foolish: the tree itself a correction of vanities.

This is what you are to say to them: The gods who have not made the heavens and the earth will be cut off from the earth and from under the heavens.

At the voice his giving a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he will bring the lifting up from the end of the earth; he made lightnings to the rain, and he will bring forth the wind from his treasures.

All these idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made. For the image he forges is merely a sham. There is no breath in any of those idols.

They are nothing, a work of error: in the time of their punishment, destruction will overtake them.

For thus says the Lord;
“Behold, I am slinging out at this time the people of this land,
And will cause them [great] distress,
That they may find it [to be as I have said].”

Woe is me, for my wound! My stroke is hard to heal, and I had said, Yea, this is my grief, and I will bear it.

Listen! A noise—it is coming—
a great commotion from the land to the north.
The cities of Judah will be made desolate,
a jackals’ den.

Lord, we know that people do not control their own destiny. It is not in their power to determine what will happen to them.

O Lord, put me right, but with wise purpose; not in your wrath, or you will make me small.