Jeremiah 4-6

Easy-to-Read Version

“Your fields have not been plowed.
    Plow those fields!
    Don’t plant seeds among the thorns.
⁴ Become the Lord’s people.
    Change your hearts.^[a]
Men of Judah and people of Jerusalem, if you don’t change,
    then I will become very angry.
My anger will spread fast like a fire,
    and it will burn you up.
No one will be able to put out that fire
    because of the evil you have done.”

Tell everyone in the city of Jerusalem:
    ‘Blow the trumpet all over the country.’
Shout out loud and say,
    ‘Come together!
    Let us all escape to the strong cities for protection.’
⁶ Raise the signal flag toward Zion.
    Run for your lives! Don’t wait!
Do this because I am bringing disaster from the north.^[b]
    I am bringing terrible destruction.”
⁷ A lion has come out of his cave.
    A destroyer of nations has begun to march.
He has left his home to destroy your land.
    Your towns will be destroyed.
    There will be no one left to live in them.
⁸ The Lord is angry with us,
    so put on sackcloth and cry out loud!
⁹ The Lord says, “When this happens,
    the king and his officers will lose their courage.
The priests will be filled with fear,
    and the prophets will be shocked.”

¹¹ At that time this message will be given
    to the people of Judah and Jerusalem:
“A hot wind blows from the bare hills.
    It comes from the desert to my people.
It is not like the gentle wind that is used
    to separate the grain from the chaff.
¹² It is a stronger wind than that,
    and it comes from me.
Now I will announce my judgment
    against the people of Judah.”
¹³ Look! The enemy rises up like a cloud.
    His chariots look like a windstorm.
    His horses are faster than eagles.
It will be very bad for us!
    We are ruined!

¹⁴ People of Jerusalem,
    wash the evil from your hearts.
Make your hearts pure so that you can be saved.
    Don’t continue making evil plans.
¹⁵ Listen! The voice of a messenger
    from the land of Dan^[c] is speaking.
Someone is bringing bad news
    from the hill country of Ephraim^[d]:
¹⁶ “Report it to this nation.^[e]
    Spread the news to the people in Jerusalem.
Enemies are coming from a faraway country.
    They are shouting words of war against the cities of Judah.
¹⁷ The enemy has surrounded Jerusalem
    like men guarding a field.
Judah, you turned against me,
    so the enemy is coming against you.”
This message is from the Lord.

¹⁸ “The way you lived and the things you did
    brought this trouble to you.
It is your evil that made your life so hard.
    Your evil life brought the pain that hurts deep in your heart.”

²² The Lord said, “My people are foolish.
    They don’t know me.
They are stupid children.
    They don’t understand.
They are skillful at doing evil,
    but they don’t know how to do good.”

²⁷ This is what the Lord says:
“The whole country will be ruined,
    but I will not completely destroy the land.
²⁸ So the people in the land will cry for the dead.
    The sky will grow dark.
I have spoken and will not change.
    I have made a decision, and I will not change my mind.”

²⁹ The people of Judah will hear the sound
    of the horse soldiers and the archers,
    and the people will run away!
Some of them will hide in caves;^[g]
    some will hide in the bushes;
    some will climb up into the rocks.
All the cities of Judah will be empty.
    No one will live in them.

³⁰ Judah, you have been destroyed.
    So what are you doing now?
Why are you putting on your best red dress?
    Why are you putting on your gold jewelry?
Why are you putting on your eye makeup?
    You make yourself beautiful,
    but it is a waste of time.
Your lovers hate you.
    They are trying to kill you.
³¹ I hear a cry like a woman in labor,
    a scream like a woman giving birth to her first baby.
    It is the cry of daughter Zion.^[h]
She is lifting her hands in prayer, saying,
    “Oh! I am about to faint!
    Murderers are all around me!”

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.^[i]
    The word of God is not in them.^[j]
    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.^[k]
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,^[l]
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^[p] 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^[q] 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.^[r]
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^[s]?
    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.^[t]
    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.^[u]”
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.^[v]
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^[w] blew strongly, and the fire became hotter,
    but only lead came from the fire.^[x]
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.”