You made men (charioteers) ride over our heads [in defeat];
We went through fire and through water,
Yet You brought us out into a [broad] place of abundance [to be refreshed].

But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling,
My steps had almost slipped.

The waters [of the Red Sea] saw You, O God;
The waters saw You, they were in anguish;
The deeps also trembled.

Your way [of escape for Your people] was through the sea,
And Your paths through the great waters,
And Your footprints were not traceable.

And not be like their fathers—
A stubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation that did not prepare its heart to know and follow God,
And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

The sons of Ephraim were armed as archers and carrying bows,
Yet they turned back in the day of battle.

So they ate and were well filled,
He gave them what they craved.

For their heart was not steadfast toward Him,
Nor were they faithful to His covenant.

For He [graciously] remembered that they were mere [human] flesh,
A wind that goes and does not return.

They turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers;
They were twisted like a warped bow [that will not respond to the archer’s aim].

The fire [of war] devoured His young men,
And His [bereaved] virgins had no wedding songs.

The mountains were covered with its shadow,
And its branches were like the cedars of God.

“I removed the burden from his shoulder;
His hands were freed from the basket.

But of Zion it will be said, “This one and that one were born in her,”
And the Most High Himself will establish her.

Before the mountains were born
Or before You had given birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are [the eternal] God.

Moses and Aaron were among His priests,
And Samuel was among those who called on His name;
They called upon the Lord and He answered them.

You answered them, O Lord our God;
You were a forgiving God to them,
And yet an avenger of their evil practices.

For I have eaten ashes like bread,
And have mingled my drink with tears

When there were only a few men in number,
Very few [in fact], and strangers in it;

Our fathers in Egypt did not understand nor appreciate Your miracles;
They did not remember the abundance of Your mercies nor imprint Your lovingkindnesses on their hearts,
But they were rebellious at the sea, at the Red Sea.

And served their idols,
Which became a [dreadful] snare to them.

In this way they became unclean in their practices;
They played the prostitute in their own deeds [by giving their worship, which belongs to God alone, to other “gods”].

Their enemies also oppressed them,
And they were subdued under the [powerful] hand of their enemies.

Many times He rescued them;
But they were rebellious in their counsel,
And sank down in their wickedness.

Hungry and thirsty,
They fainted.

The cords and sorrows of death encompassed me,
And the terrors of Sheol came upon me;
I found distress and sorrow.

Oh, that my ways may be established
To observe and keep Your statutes [obediently accepting and honoring them]!

For there the thrones of judgment were set,
The thrones of the house of David.

When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion (Jerusalem),
We were like those who dream [it seemed so unreal].

Then our mouth was filled with laughter
And our tongue with joyful shouting;
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”

All the kings of the land will give thanks and praise You, O Lord,
When they have heard of the promises of Your mouth [which were fulfilled].

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were appointed for me,
When as yet there was not one of them [even taking shape].

Let them praise the name of the Lord,
For He commanded and they were created.

By His knowledge the deeps were broken up
And the clouds drip with dew.

“I have peace offerings with me;
Today I have paid my vows.

“When there were no ocean depths I was born,
When there were no fountains and springs overflowing with water.

“Before the mountains were settled,
Before the hills, I was born;

And, behold, it was all overgrown with thorns,
And nettles were covering its surface,
And its stone wall was broken down.

She makes for herself coverlets, cushions, and rugs of tapestry.
Her clothing is linen, pure and fine, and purple [wool].

Is there anything of which it can be said,
“See this, it is new”?
It has already existed for [the vast] ages [of time recorded or unrecorded]
Which were before us.

So I became great and excelled more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also remained with me.

There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being kept and hoarded by their owner to his own misery.

Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?”
For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.

There is a meaningless and futile thing which is done on the earth: that is, there are righteous men whose gain is as though they were evil, and evil men whose gain is as though they were righteous. I say that this too is futility (meaningless, vain).

“Draw me away with you and let us run together!
Let the king bring me into his chambers.”

“Do not gaze at me because I am deeply tanned,
[I have worked in] the sun; it has left its mark on me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me;
They made me keeper of the vineyards,
But my own vineyard (my complexion) I have not kept.”

(The Bridegroom)
“O my dove, [here] in the clefts in the rock,
In the sheltered and secret place of the steep pathway,
Let me see your face,
Let me hear your voice;
For your voice is sweet,
And your face is lovely.”

“I went down to the orchard of nut trees
To see the flowers of the valley,
To see whether the grapevine had budded
And the pomegranates were in flower.

“Oh, that you were like a brother to me,
Who nursed at the breasts of my mother.
If I found you out of doors, I would kiss you;
No one would blame me or despise me, either.

“Let his left hand be under my head
And his right hand embrace me.”

Therefore the anger of the Lord has burned against His people,
And He has stretched out His hand against them and has struck them down.
And the mountains trembled, and their dead bodies lay like rubbish in the middle of the streets.
In spite of all this God’s anger is not turned away,
But His hand is still stretched out [in judgment].

As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the pick and the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place where oxen are pastured and where sheep tread.

“As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols,
Whose carved images were greater and more feared than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

Is the axe able to lift itself over the one who chops with it?
Is the saw able to magnify itself over the one who wields it?
That would be like a club moving those who lift it,
Or like a staff raising him who is not [made of] wood [like itself]!

And on that day you will say,
“I will give thanks to You, O Lord;
For though You were angry with me,
Your anger has turned away,
And You comfort me.

And it will be in the day when the Lord gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and from the harsh service in which you have been enslaved,

This is the word which the Lord spoke earlier concerning Moab [when Moab’s pride and resistance to God were first known].

The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning the Desert of the Sea (the seasonally flooded plains just south of Babylon):

As windstorms in the Negev (the South) sweep through,
So it (God’s judgment) comes from the desert, from [the hostile armies of] a terrifying land.

All your leaders have fled together [with your king],
And have been captured without the bow [which they had thrown away];
All of you who were found were taken captive together,
Though they had fled far away.

And it came to pass that your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
And the horsemen took their fixed positions [in an offensive array] at the gate [of Jerusalem].

You saw that the breaches
In the wall of the City of David [the citadel of Zion] were many;
You collected [within the city’s walls] the waters of the Lower Pool (Siloam).

And they were on great waters.
The grain of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile River, was Tyre’s revenue;
And she was the market of nations.

Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?

O Lord, they sought You in distress;
They managed only a prayerful whisper
When Your discipline was upon them.

We have been with child, we have twisted and struggled in labor;
We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.
We could not accomplish salvation for the earth,
Nor were inhabitants of the world born.

“I have no wrath.
Should anyone give Me briars and thorns in battle,
I would step on them, I would set them all on fire.

Like the striking by Him who has struck them, has He struck them?
Or like the slaughter of His slain, have they been slain?

It will come to pass in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost and perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Woe (judgment is coming) to you, O destroyer,
You who were not destroyed,
And he who is treacherous, while others did not deal treacherously with him.
As soon as you finish destroying, you will be destroyed;
As soon as you stop dealing treacherously, others will deal treacherously with you.

Did the gods of the nations which my fathers destroyed rescue them—Gozan, Haran [of Mesopotamia], Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar?

and have cast the gods [of those peoples] into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them.

“Therefore their inhabitants had little power,
They were terrorized and shamed;
They were like the grass of the field and the green vegetation,
Like grass on the housetops and like a field [of grain] scorched before it is grown.

And the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when the [surviving] men got up early the next morning, they saw all the dead.

Who gave up Jacob [the kingdom of Judah] for spoil, and [the kingdom of] Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not the Lord, He against whom we [of Judah] have sinned,
And in whose ways they [of Israel] were unwilling to walk,
And whose law and teaching they did not obey?

“It shall be said of Me, ‘Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.’
To Him people will come,
And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.

“Because I know that you are obstinate,
And your neck is an iron tendon
And your brow is bronze [both unyielding],

“You have not heard, you have not known;
Even from long ago your ear has not been open.
For I [the Lord] knew that you [Israel] would act very treacherously;
You have been called a transgressor and a rebel from birth.

The Lord declares this;

“Where is the certificate of divorce
By which I have sent your mother away, [O Israel]?
Or to which one of My creditors did I sell you [as slaves]?
In fact, You were sold for your wickedness [your sin, your injustice, your wrongdoing],
And for your transgressions your mother was sent away.

“Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness (right standing with God),
Who seek and inquire of the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
And to the excavation of the quarry from which you were dug.

For the Lord says this, “You were sold for nothing and you will be redeemed, but not with money.”

Just as many were astonished and appalled at you, My people,
So His appearance was marred more than any man
And His form [marred] more than the sons of men.

“You were wearied by the length of your road,
Yet you did not say, ‘It is no use.’
You found renewed strength,
Therefore you did not grow weak.

“About whom were you worried and fearful
That you lied and did not remember Me,
Nor give Me a thought?
Was I not silent even for a long time
And [as a result] you do not fear Me?

“Yet they seek Me day by day and delight [superficially] to know My ways,
As [if they were in reality] a nation that has done righteousness
And has not abandoned (turned away from) the ordinance of their God.
They ask of Me righteous judgments,
They delight in the nearness of God.

“I trampled the peoples in My anger
And made them drunk with [the cup of] My wrath,
And I spilled their lifeblood on the earth.”

We have become like those over whom You have never ruled,
Like those who were not called by Your name.

You meet him who rejoices in doing that which is morally right,
Who remembers You in Your ways.
Indeed, You were angry, for we sinned;
We have long continued in our sins [prolonging Your anger].
And shall we be saved [under such circumstances]?

Who sit among the graves [trying to conjure up evil spirits] and spend the night in the secret places [where spirits are thought to dwell];
Who eat swine’s flesh,
And their pots hold the broth of unclean meat;

“He who kills an ox [for pagan sacrifice] is [as guilty] as one who kills a man;
He who sacrifices a lamb, as one who breaks a dog’s neck;
He who offers a grain offering, as one who offers swine’s blood;
He who offers incense, as one who blesses an idol.
Such people have chosen their own ways,
And their soul delights in their repulsive acts;

The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, [one] of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you [and approved of you as My chosen instrument],
And before you were born I consecrated you [to Myself as My own];
I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

“Why do you go around and wander so much
Changing your way?
Also, you will be shamed by Egypt
As you were shamed by Assyria.

“Will you not just now call out to Me,
‘My Father, you were the guide and companion of my youth?

I looked, and behold, the fertile land was a wilderness,
And all its cities were pulled down
Before the [presence of the] Lord, before His fierce anger.

“They were like well-fed, lusty stallions,
Each one neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

“Were they ashamed because they had committed disgusting and vile things?
No, they were not at all ashamed;
They did not even know how to blush [at their idolatry].
Therefore they will fall among those who fall;
At the time that I punish them
They will be overthrown,” says the Lord.

“Were they ashamed because of the extremely disgusting and shamefully vile things they had done?
They were not at all ashamed,
And they did not know how to blush.
Therefore, they shall fall among those who fall;
At the time of their punishment they shall be overthrown,”
Says the Lord.

Oh that 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!

Your words were found and I ate them,
And Your words became a joy to me and the delight of my heart;
For I have been called by Your name,
O Lord God of hosts.

Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin Gate by the house of the Lord.