Jeremiah 5-8

Easy-to-Read Version

³ Lord, I know that you want people
    to be loyal to you.
You hit the people of Judah,
    but they did not feel any pain.
You destroyed them,
    but they refused to learn their lesson.
They became very stubborn.
    They refused to be sorry for the bad things they did.

⁴ But I said to myself,
    “It must be only the poor who are so foolish.
They have not learned the way of the Lord.
    They don’t know the teachings of their God.
⁵ So I will go to the leaders of Judah.
    I will talk to them.
Surely the leaders know the way of the Lord.
    Surely they know the law of their God.”
But the leaders had all joined together
    to break away from serving God.
⁶ So a lion from the forest will attack them.
    A wolf from the desert will kill them.
A leopard is hiding near their cities,
    to tear to pieces anyone who comes out.
That’s because the people have sinned again and again.
    Many times they have wandered away from God.

⁷ God says, “People of Judah, why should I forgive you?
    Your children have abandoned me.
    They made promises to idols that are not really gods!
I gave your children everything they needed,
    but they were still unfaithful to me!
    They spent their time with prostitutes.
⁸ They are like horses that have had plenty to eat and are ready to mate.
    They are like a horse that is calling its neighbor’s wife.
⁹ Should I punish the people of Judah for doing these things?”
    This message is from the Lord.
“You know I should punish a nation such as this.
    I should give it the punishment it deserves.

¹⁰ “Go along the rows of Judah’s grapevines.
    Cut down the vines. (But don’t completely destroy them.)
    Cut off all their branches, because they don’t belong to the Lord.
¹¹ The family of Israel and the family of Judah
    have been unfaithful to me in every way.”
    This message is from the Lord.

¹² “Those people lied about the Lord.
    They said, ‘He will not do anything to us.
Nothing bad will happen to us.
    We will never see an army attack us.
    We will never starve.’
¹³ The prophets are only empty wind.^[a]
    The word of God is not in them.^[b]
    Bad things will happen to them.”

¹⁴ The Lord God All-Powerful said these things:
    “The people said I would not punish them.
So, Jeremiah, the words I give you will be like fire,
    and these people will be like wood.
    That fire will burn them up completely.”
¹⁵ Family of Israel, this message is from the Lord.
    “I will soon bring a nation from far away to attack you.
It is an old nation;
    it is an ancient nation.
The people of that nation speak a language that you do not know.
    You cannot understand what they say.
¹⁶ Their arrow bags are like open graves.
    All their men are strong soldiers.
¹⁷ They will eat all the crops that you gathered.
    They will eat all your food.
    They will destroy your sons and daughters.
They will eat your flocks and your herds.
    They will eat your grapes and your figs.
They will destroy your strong cities with their swords.
    They will destroy the strong cities that you trust in.”

²⁰ “Tell this message to the family of Jacob,
    and tell it in the nation of Judah.
²¹ Hear this message,
    you foolish people who have no sense.
You have eyes, but you don’t see!
    You have ears, but you don’t listen!
²² Surely you are afraid of me.”
This message is from the Lord.
    “You should shake with fear in front of me.
I am the one who made the sandy shores to hold back the sea.
    I made it that way to keep the water in its place forever.
The waves may pound the beach, but they will not destroy it.
    The waves may roar as they come in, but they cannot go beyond the beach.
²³ But the people of Judah are stubborn.
    They are always planning ways to turn against me.
    They turned away from me and left me.
²⁴ The people of Judah never say to themselves,
    ‘Let’s fear and respect the Lord our God.
He gives us autumn and spring rains at just the right time.
    He makes sure that we have the harvest at just the right time.’
²⁵ You don’t have these blessings because you have done wrong.
    Your sins have kept these good things away from you.
²⁶ There are evil men among my people.
    They are like men who make nets for catching birds.^[c]
They set their traps,
    but they catch people instead of birds.
²⁷ Their houses are full of lies,
    like a cage full of birds.
Their lies made them rich and powerful.
²⁸     They have grown big and fat from the evil they have done.
There is no end to the evil they do.
    They will not plead the case of children who have no parents.
    They will not help these orphans.
    They will not let the poor be judged fairly.
²⁹ Should I punish the people of Judah for doing these things?”
    This message is from the Lord.
“You know I should punish a nation such as this.
    I should give it the punishment it deserves.

³⁰ “A terrible and shocking thing
    has happened in the land of Judah.
³¹ The prophets tell lies.
    The priests will not do what they were chosen to do,^[d]
and my people love it this way!
    But what will you people do when your punishment comes?

⁴ “Get ready to fight against Jerusalem.
    Get up! We will attack the city at noon.
But it is already getting late.
    The evening shadows are growing long.
⁵ So get up! We will attack the city at night!
    Let’s destroy the strong walls that are around Jerusalem.”

⁶ This is what the Lord All-Powerful says:
    “Cut down the trees around Jerusalem,
    and build a siege mound^[h] against it.
This city should be punished
    because inside there is no justice—only slavery.
⁷ As a well keeps its water fresh,
    so Jerusalem keeps its wickedness fresh.
I hear about the robbing and violence in this city all the time.
    I see nothing but pain and sickness there all the time.
⁸ Listen to this warning, Jerusalem,
    or I will turn my back on you.
I will make your land an empty desert.
    No one will be able to live there.”

⁹ This is what the Lord All-Powerful says:
“Gather^[i] the people of Israel who were left on their land.
    Gather them the way you would gather the last grapes on a grapevine.
Check each vine,
    like the workers check each vine when they pick the grapes.”
¹⁰ Who can I speak to?
    Who can I warn?
    Who will listen to me?
The people of Israel have closed their ears,
    so they cannot hear my warnings.
They don’t like the Lord’s teachings.
    They don’t want to hear his message.
¹¹ But I am full of the Lord’s anger,
    and I am tired of holding it in!
“Pour out my anger on the children playing in the streets
    and on the young soldiers gathered there as well.
A man and his wife will both be captured
    as well as all the old people.
¹² Their houses will be given to others.
    Their fields and their wives will be given to other people.
I will raise my hand and punish the people of Judah.”
    This message is from the Lord.

¹³ “All the people of Israel want more and more money.
    All of them, from the least important to the most important, are like that.
    Even the prophets and priests tell lies.
¹⁴ They should bandage the wounds my people have suffered,
    but they treat their wounds like small scratches.
They say, ‘It’s all right, everything is all right.’
    But it is not all right!
¹⁵ They should be ashamed of the evil things they do,
    but they are not ashamed at all.
They don’t know enough to be embarrassed by their sins.
    So they will be punished with everyone else.
They will be thrown to the ground when I punish the people.”
    This is what the Lord said.

¹⁶ This is what the Lord says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look.
    Ask where the old road is.
Ask where the good road is,
    and walk on that road.
If you do, you will find rest for yourselves.
    But you people have said, ‘We will not walk on the good road.’
¹⁷ I chose watchmen to watch over you.
    I told them, ‘Listen for the sound of the war trumpet.’
    But they said, ‘We will not listen!’
¹⁸ So listen, all you nations,
    and pay attention, you people in those countries.^[j]
19 Hear this, people of the earth:
    I am going to bring disaster to the people of Judah
    because of all the evil they planned,
and because they ignored my messages.
    They refused to obey my law.

²⁰ “Why do you bring me incense from the country of Sheba^[k]?
    Why do you bring me sweet-smelling cane from a faraway country?
Your burnt offerings don’t make me happy.
    Your sacrifices don’t please me.”

²¹ So this is what the Lord says:
“I will give the people of Judah problems.
    They will be like stones that make people fall.
Fathers and sons will stumble over them.
    Friends and neighbors will die.”

²² This is what the Lord says:
“An army is coming from the north.^[l]
    A great nation is coming from faraway places on earth.
²³ The soldiers carry bows and spears.
    They are cruel; they have no mercy.
They are so powerful.
    They sound like the roaring ocean as they ride their horses.
That army is coming, ready for battle.
    It is coming to attack you, Jerusalem.^[m]”
²⁴ We have heard the news about that army,
    and we are paralyzed with fear.
We feel trapped by our troubles,
    in pain like a woman giving birth.
²⁵ Don’t go out into the fields.
    Don’t go on the roads
because the enemy has swords,
    and there is danger everywhere.
²⁶ My people, put on sackcloth
    and roll in the ashes.^[n]
Cry loudly for the dead.
    Cry as if you lost an only son.
Do this because the destroyer
    will come against us very quickly.

²⁷ “Jeremiah, I want you to be
    like a worker who tests metals.
You will test my people
    and watch how they live.
²⁸ My people have turned against me,
    and they are very stubborn.
    They say bad things about people.
They are like bronze and iron
    that are covered with rust and tarnish.
²⁹ They are like a worker who tried to make silver pure.
The bellows^[o] blew strongly, and the fire became hotter,
    but only lead came from the fire.^[p]
The worker wasted his time
    trying to make that silver pure.
    In the same way the evil was not removed from my people.
³⁰ My people will be called ‘Rejected Silver.’
    They will be given that name because the Lord did not accept them.”

“‘You know if a man falls down,
    he gets up again.
And if a man goes the wrong way,
    he turns around and comes back.
⁵ The people of Judah went the wrong way.
    But why do the people of Jerusalem continue going the wrong way?
They believe their own lies.
    They refuse to turn around and come back.
⁶ I have listened to them very carefully,
    but they don’t say what is right.
They are not sorry for their sins.
    They don’t think about the evil they have done.
They do things without thinking.
    They are like horses running into a battle.
⁷ Even the birds in the sky
    know the right time to do things.
The storks, doves, swifts, and thrushes
    know when it is time to fly to a new home.
But my people don’t know
    what the Lord wants them to do.

⁸ “‘You keep saying, “We have the Lord’s teachings. So we are wise!”
    But this is not true, because the scribes have lied with their pens.
⁹ These “wise people” refused to listen to the Lord’s teachings.
    So they are not really wise at all.
These “wise people” were trapped.
    They became shocked and ashamed.
¹⁰ So I will give their wives to other men.
    I will give their fields to new owners.
All the people of Israel want more and more money.
    All of them, from the least important to the most important, are like that.
    Even the prophets and priests tell lies.
¹¹ They should bandage the wounds my people have suffered,
    but they treat their wounds like small scratches.
They say, “It’s all right, everything is all right.”
    But it is not all right!
¹² They should be ashamed of the evil things they do,
    but they are not ashamed at all.
They don’t know enough to be embarrassed by their sins.
    So they will be punished with everyone else.
They will be thrown to the ground when I punish the people.’”
    This is what the Lord said.

¹³ “‘I will take away their fruit and crops
    so that there will be no harvest, says the Lord.
There will be no grapes on the vine and no figs on the fig tree.
    Even the leaves will become dry and die.
I will take away the things I gave them.’”^[u]

¹⁴ “They will say, ‘Why are we just sitting here?
    Come, let’s run to the strong cities.
If the Lord our God is going to make us die,
    then let’s die there.
We have sinned against the Lord,
    so he has given us poisoned water to drink.
¹⁵ We hoped to have peace,
    but nothing good has come.
We hoped that he would forgive us,
    but only disaster has come.
¹⁶ From the land of the tribe of Dan,
    we hear the snorting^[v] of the enemy’s horses.
    The ground shakes from the pounding of their hooves.
They have come to destroy the land
    and everything in it.
They have come to destroy the city
    and all the people who live there.’”

¹⁷ “People of Judah, I am sending poisonous snakes^[w] to attack you.
    These snakes cannot be controlled.
They will bite you.”
    This message is from the Lord.

¹⁸ God, I am very sad and afraid.
¹⁹ Listen to my people.
    Everywhere in this country, people are crying for help.
They say, “Is the Lord still at Zion?
    Is Zion’s King still there?”

But God says,
“The people of Judah worshiped their worthless foreign idols.
    That made me very angry!
    Why did they do that?”
²⁰ And the people say,
    “Harvest time is over.
Summer is gone,
    and still we have not been saved.”

²¹ My people are hurt, so I am hurt.
    I am too sad to speak.
²² Surely there is some medicine in Gilead.
    Surely there is a doctor in Gilead.
    So why are the wounds of my people not healed?