Jeremiah 4

¹ If you do turn back, O Israel, An affirmation of Yahweh, unto Me turn back, And if you do turn aside Your abominations from My face, Then you do not bemoan. ² And you have sworn - Yahweh lives, In truth, in judgment, and in righteousness, And blessed themselves in Him have nations, And in Him they boast themselves. ³ For thus said Yahweh, To the man of Judah, and to Jerusalem: "Till for yourselves tillage, And do not sow unto the thorns. ⁴ Be circumcised to Yahweh, And turn aside the foreskins of your heart, O man of Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, Lest My fury go out as fire, and has burned, And there is none quenching, Because of the evil of your doings. ⁵ Declare in Judah, and in Jerusalem sound, And say you, 'Blow a trumpet in the land', Call you fully, and say you: 'Be gathered, and we go in to the fenced city.' ⁶ Lift up an ensign Zionward, Strengthen yourselves, stand not still, For evil I am bringing in from the north, And a great destruction. ⁷ Gone up has a lion from his thicket, And a destroyer of nations has journeyed, He has come forth from his place To make your land become a desolation, Your cities are laid waste, without inhabitant. ⁸ For this, gird on sackcloth, lament and howl, For the fierce anger of Yahweh has not turned back from us. ⁹ And it has come to pass, in that day, An affirmation of Yahweh: Perish does the heart of the king, And the heart of the princes, And astonished have been the priests, And the prophets do wonder." ¹⁰ And I say, Ah, Lord Yahweh, Surely you have entirely forgotten this people and Jerusalem, saying, Peace is for you, And struck has a sword unto the soul! ¹¹ At 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), ¹² A full wind from these does come for Me, Now, also, I speak judgments with them. ¹³ Lo, as clouds he comes up, And as a hurricane his chariots, Lighter than eagles have been his horses, Woe to us, for we have been spoiled. ¹⁴ Wash from evil your heart, O Jerusalem, That you may be saved, Till when do you lodge in your heart Thoughts of your strength? ¹⁵ For a voice is declaring from Dan, And sounding sorrow from mount Ephraim. ¹⁶ Make you mention to the nations, Lo, sound you to Jerusalem: Besiegers are coming from the land afar off, And they give forth against cities of Judah their voice. ¹⁷ As the keepers of a field They have been against her round about, For with Me she has been rebellious, An affirmation of Yahweh. ¹⁸ Your way and your doings have done these to you, This [is] your vexation, for [it is] bitter, For it has struck unto your heart. ¹⁹ My bowels, my bowels! I am pained [at] the walls of my heart, Make a noise for me does My heart, I am not silent, For the voice of a trumpet I have heard, O my soul - a shout of battle! ²⁰ Destruction on destruction is proclaimed, For spoiled has been all the land, Suddenly spoiled have been my tents, In a moment - my curtains. ²¹ Till when do I see an ensign? Do I hear the voice of a trumpet? ²² For 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. ²³ I looked [to] the land, and lo, waste and void, And unto the heavens, and their light is not. ²⁴ I have looked [to] the mountains, And lo, they are trembling. And all the hills moved themselves lightly. ²⁵ I have looked, and lo, man is not, And all fowls of the heavens have fled. ²⁶ I have looked, and lo, The fruitful place [is] a wilderness, And all its cities have been broken down, Because of Yahweh, Because of the fierceness of His anger. ²⁷ For thus said Yahweh: "All the land is a desolation, but a completion I make not. ²⁸ For this does 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. ²⁹ From 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. ³⁰ And you, O spoiled one, what do you? For you put on scarlet, For you adorn yourself [with] ornaments of gold. For you rend with pain your eyes, In vain you do make yourself fair, Kicked against you have doting ones, Your life they do seek. ³¹ For 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 bewails herself, she spreads out her hands, 'Woe to me now, for weary is my soul of slayers!'"