They have only now been effected, and not in the past: and before this day they had not come to your ears; for fear that you might say, I had knowledge of them.

Truly you had no word of them, no knowledge of them; no news of them in the past had come to your ears; because I saw how false was your behaviour, and that your heart was turned against me from your earliest days.

O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:

Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.

They had no need of water when he was guiding them through the waste lands: he made water come out of the rock for them: the rock was parted and the waters came flowing out.

Give ear, O sea-lands, to me; and take note, you peoples from far: I have been marked out by the Lord from the first; when I was still in my mother's body, he had my name in mind:

But Zion had said. Yahweh hath forsaken me, - Even, My Lord, hath forgotten me!

Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?

For why would no man receive me, when I came? And when I called, no man gave me answer. Was my hand clean smitten off, that it might not help? Or had I not power to deliver? Lo, at a word I drink up the sea, and of water floods I make dry land: so that for want of water, the fish corrupt and die of thirst.

Who among you, revereth Yahweh, Hearkening unto the voice of his Servant, - That hath walked in dark places And hath had no gleam of light? Let him trust in the name of Yahweh, And lean upon his God.

But I will put it into the hands of those who tormented and oppressed you, those who said to you, "Lie down, so we can step over you,' so that you had to make your back like the ground, and like a street for them to walk over."

So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

Who would have had faith in the word which has come to our ears, and to whom had the arm of the Lord been unveiled?

For he went up like shoot before him, and like root from dry ground. He had no form and no majesty that we should see him, and no appearance that we should take pleasure in him.

He was despised and cast out of men's company; and one that had suffered sorrow, and had experience of infirmity. And we were as one that had hid his face from him.

But it was our pain he took, and our diseases were put on him: while to us he seemed as one diseased, on whom God's punishment had come.

We all, like sheep, had gone astray, Every man - to his way, had we burned, - And Yahweh! caused to light upon him The guilt of, us all!

And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

... made clear his righteousness before men ... had taken their sins on himself.

Let your voice be loud in song, O woman without children; make melody and sounds of joy, you who did not give birth: for the children of her who had no husband are more than those of the married wife, says the Lord.

In an overflow of vexation, I hid my face for a moment, from thee, But, with lovingkindness age-abiding, have I had compassion on thee, - saith thy Redeemer Yahweh.

For the mountains may be taken away, and the hills be moved out of their places, but my love will not be taken from you, or my agreement of peace broken, says the Lord, who has had mercy on you.

See, you will send for a nation of which you had no knowledge, and those who had no knowledge of you will come running to you, because of the Lord your God, and because of the Holy One of Israel, for he has given you glory.

Unto them will I give in my household and within my walls, a better heritage and name than if they had been called sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not perish.

And on the back of the doors and on the pillars you have put your sign: for you have been false to me with another; you have made your bed wide, and made an agreement with them; you had a desire for their bed where you saw it

Thou hast had trouble for the multitude of thine own ways, yet saidest thou never, "I will leave off." Thou thinkest to have life of thyself, and therefore thou believest not that thou art sick.

For not age-abidingly, will I contend, Nor perpetually, will I be wroth, - For, spirit, before me, would faint, Even the breathing souls, which, I, had made.

Yet they seek me day [by] day, and they desire the knowledge of my ways like a nation that {practiced} righteousness, and had not forsaken the judgment of its God; they ask me for {righteous judgments}, they desire the closeness of God.

We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.

He saw also, that there was no man which had pity thereof, or was grieved at it. And he held him by his own power, and cleaved to his own righteousness.

And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee.

Then shall come unto thee bending low, The sons of them who had humbled thee, Then shall bow down, unto the soles of thy feet, All they who had despised thee; And they shall call thee - The city of Yahweh, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

And though you were turned away from, and hated, and had no helper, I will make you a pride for ever, a joy from generation to generation.

Instead of your [former] shame you will have a double portion;
And instead of humiliation your people will shout for joy over their portion.
Therefore in their land they will possess double [what they had forfeited];
Everlasting joy will be theirs.

For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed had come.

In their troubles he forsook them not, but the angel that went forth from his presence delivered them. Of very love and kindness that he had unto them, he redeemed them: He hath born them, and carried them up ever since the world began.

Yet remembered he the old time of Moses and his people: How he brought them from the water of the sea, as a shepherd doth with his sheep; how he had given his holy spirit among them;

how he had led Moses by the righthand with his glorious arm; how he had divided the water before them, whereby he gat himself an everlasting name;

Your holy people had a possession
for a little while,
but our enemies have trampled down
Your sanctuary.

At thy presence, had mountains, quaked: As fire kindleth brushwood, As fire causeth, water, to boil, So if thou wouldst make known thy Name to thine adversaries, At thy presence, nations, would tremble.

The ear has not had news of, or the eye seen, ... any God but you, working for the man who is waiting for him.

Yet didst thou meet Him who was rejoicing and working righteousness, Even them who in thy ways, remembered thee, - Lo! thou, hast been vexed, And truly we had sinned, Among them, was the prospect of an age to come , That we might be saved.

I have let myself be consulted by them who had not asked, I have suffered myself to be found by them who had not sought me, - I have said, Here I am! Here I am! Unto a nation that had not been called by my name,

And I will put a sign among them, and I will send those who are still living to the nations, to Tarshish, Put, and Lud, Meshech and Rosh, Tubal and Javan, to the sea-lands far away, who have not had word of me, or seen my glory; and they will give the knowledge of my glory to the nations.

Then shall they go forth and look upon the dead bodies of the men who had been trespassing against me - For, their worm, shall not die, And, their fire, shall not be quenched; So shall they become an abhorrence to all flesh.

when the LORD had first spoken with him, in the time of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his kingdom;

Before you were formed in the body of your mother I had knowledge of you, and before your birth I made you holy; I have given you the work of being a prophet to the nations.

Then the Lord said to me, “Out of the north the evil [which the prophets foretold as the result of national sin] will reveal itself and spill out on all the people of the land.

"Go and declare in the hearing of the people of Jerusalem: 'This is what the Lord says: "I have fond memories of you, how devoted you were to me in your early years. I remember how you loved me like a new bride; you followed me through the wilderness, through a land that had never been planted.

Neither said they, Where is Yahweh, Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, - Who led us Through the desert, Through a land of wastes and clefts, Through a land of parched places and of death-shade, Through a land, Along which no man had passed, And in which no son of earth dwelt?

And when I had brought you into a pleasant well builded land, that ye might enjoy the fruits and all the commodities of the same: ye went forth and defiled my land, and brought mine heritage to abomination.

The priests did not say, Where is the Lord? and those who were expert in the law had no knowledge of me: and the rulers did evil against me, and the prophets became prophets of the Baal, going after things without value.

Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?

O generation, see ye the word of Jehovah. Was I the desert to Israel? If a land of thick darkness? wherefore said my people, We had dominion, we will come no more to thee?

Even your clothes are stained with the lifeblood of the poor who had not done anything wrong; you did not catch them breaking into your homes. Yet, in spite of all these things you have done,

"Look up at the hilltops and consider this. You have had sex with other gods on every one of them. You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert. You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods.

“Therefore the showers have been withheld,
And there has been no spring rain.
Yet you had a harlot’s forehead;
You refused to be ashamed.

Will he retain his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and hast done evil things, and hast had thy way.

And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

Yea though it had come to pass that through the levity of her unchastity, she had defiled the land, - and committed adultery with Stone and with Tree,

but on this condition, that thou know thy great blasphemy: Namely, that thou hast unfaithfully forsaken the LORD thy God, and hast made thyself partaker of strange gods under all green trees, but hast had no will to hear my voice, sayeth the LORD.

Though, I myself, had said, - How can I put thee among the sons, And give thee a land to be coveted, An inheritance of beauty, of the hosts of nations? Yet I said, My father, shalt thou call me, And away from me, shalt thou not turn.

I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

I beheld, The mountains, and lo! they were trembling, - And all the hills, had been violently moved:

I looked, and behold, there was no man,
And all the birds of the air had fled.

I beheld, And lo! the garden-land, was a desert, - And, all its cities, had been broken down, Because of Yahweh, Because of the glow of his anger!

“I will go to the great [men]
And speak to them,
For they [must] know the way of the Lord,
The ordinance of their God.”
But [I found the reverse to be true, that] they too had all alike broken the yoke [of God’s law]
And had burst the bonds [of obedience to Him].

How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.

Lusty, well-fed horses, had they become, Every man unto his neighbours wife, would neigh!

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

So I said, "Oh, my dear people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with painful sobs as though you had lost your only child. For any moment now that destructive army will come against us."

Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own is to be a hideout for robbers? You had better take note! I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord.

However, I will leave some of these wicked people alive and banish them to other places. But wherever these people who survive may go, they will wish they had died rather than lived," says the Lord who rules over all.

I took note and gave ear, but no one said what is right: no man had regret for his evil-doing, saying, What have I done? everyone goes off on his way like a horse rushing to the fight.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

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.

Yet they did not obey or incline their ear [to listen to Me], but everyone walked in the stubborn way of his [own] evil heart. Therefore I brought on them all [the suffering threatened in] the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.’”

They have turned themselves to the blasphemies of their forefathers, which had no lust to hear my word. Even likewise have these also followed strange gods, and worshiped them. The houses of Israel and Judah have broken my covenant, which I made with their fathers.

Jehovah had called thy name, A green olive-tree, fair, of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and its branches are broken.

But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.

Then the Lord told me about some men from Anathoth who were threatening to kill me. They had threatened, "Stop prophesying in the name of the Lord or we will kill you!"

So I bought the shorts as the Lord had told me to do and put them on.

So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as Jehovah had commanded me.

Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing.

What will you say when the Lord appoints as rulers over you those allies that you, yourself, had actually prepared as such? Then anguish and agony will grip you like that of a woman giving birth to a baby.

"Judah shall mourn, men shall not go much more through his gates: the land shall be no more had in reputation, and the cry of Jerusalem shall break out.

I will scatter thee abroad with the fan on every side of the land: I will waste my people and destroy them, for they have had no lust to turn from their own ways.

Languisheth! she who had given birth to seven, She hath breathed out her life Her sun hath gone in, while yet it was day, She hath turned pale and hath turned red, - And the remnant of them, to the sword, will I deliver before their enemies, Declareth Yahweh.

When I had found thy words, I ate them up greedily: they have made my heart joyful and glad, for I call upon thy name, O LORD God of Hosts.

I did not sit with the group of those who celebrate,
Nor did I rejoice;
I sat alone because Your [powerful] hand was upon me,
For You had filled me with indignation [at their sin].

But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.

Then I said, "Lord, you give me strength and protect me. You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble. Nations from all over the earth will come to you and say, 'Our ancestors had nothing but false gods -- worthless idols that could not help them at all.

This is another communication that God had with Jeremiah, saying,

However, if that nation I have made an announcement about turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it.

However, if it does what is evil in My sight by not listening to My voice, I will relent concerning the good I had said I would do to it.

So this is what the Lord has said: Make search among the nations and see who has had word of such things; the virgin of Israel has done a very shocking thing.

But you, Lord, know all their plots to kill me. Do not pardon their crimes! Do not ignore their sins as though you had erased them! Let them be brought down in defeat before you! Deal with them while you are still angry!

Because they have given me up, and made this place a strange place, burning perfumes in it to other gods, of whom they and their fathers and the kings of Judah had no knowledge; and they have made this place full of the blood of those who have done no wrong;