Jeremiah 7-9

Darby Translation

7 The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

² Stand in the gate of Jehovah's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear ye the word of Jehovah, all Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship Jehovah.

³ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

⁴ Confide ye not in words of falsehood, saying, Jehovah's temple, Jehovah's temple, Jehovah's temple is this.

⁵ But if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if ye really do justice between a man and his neighbour,

⁶ [if] ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed no innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt;

⁷ then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers from of old even for ever.

⁸ Behold, ye confide in words of falsehood that cannot profit.

⁹ What? steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not …

¹⁰ then ye come and stand before me, in this house which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered,—in order to do all these abominations!

¹¹ Is this house, which is called by my name, a den of robbers in your eyes? Even I, behold, I have seen it, saith Jehovah.

¹² For go now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it, for the wickedness of my people Israel.

¹³ And now, because ye have done all these works, saith Jehovah, and I spoke unto you, rising up early and speaking, and ye heard not, and I called you, and ye answered not;

¹⁴ I will even do unto the house which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh;

¹⁵ and I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, all the seed of Ephraim.

¹⁶ And thou, pray not for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, and make not intercession to me; for I will not hear thee.

¹⁷ Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁸ The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

¹⁹ Is it I whom they provoke to anger? saith Jehovah; is it not themselves, to the shame of their own face?

²⁰ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place; upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

²¹ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt-offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.

²² For I spoke not unto your fathers, nor commanded them concerning burnt-offerings and sacrifices, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt;

²³ but I commanded them this thing, saying, Hearken unto my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.

²⁴ But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.

²⁵ Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt, unto this day, have I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them;

²⁶ but they have not hearkened unto me, nor inclined their ear; and they have hardened their neck: they have done worse than their fathers.

²⁷ And thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken unto thee; and thou shalt call unto them, but they will not answer thee.

²⁸ And thou shalt say unto them, This is the nation which hath not hearkened unto the voice of Jehovah their God, nor received correction; fidelity is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

²⁹ Cut off thy hair, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the heights; for Jehovah hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

³⁰ For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith Jehovah; they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.

³¹ And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded not, neither did it come up into my mind.

³² Therefore, behold, days are coming, saith Jehovah, when it shall no more be said, Topheth, and Valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter; for they shall bury in Topheth, till there be no place.

³³ And the carcases of this people shall be food for the fowl of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall scare [them] away.

³⁴ And I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of joy, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.

8 At that time, saith Jehovah, they shall bring forth the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves;

² and they shall spread them out to the sun and to the moon and to all the host of the heavens, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the ground.

³ And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, in all the places whither I have driven those that remain, saith Jehovah of hosts.

⁴ And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah: Do [men] fall, and not rise up? Doth one turn away, and not return?

⁵ Why hath this people of Jerusalem slidden back with a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

⁶ I hearkened and heard: they speak not what is right; there is no man who repenteth him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Every one turneth to his course, like a horse rushing into the battle.

⁷ Even a stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle-dove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of Jehovah.

⁸ How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of Jehovah is with us? Behold, certainly the lying pen of the scribes hath made it falsehood.

⁹ The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: behold, they have rejected Jehovah's word; and what wisdom is in them?

¹⁰ Therefore will I give their wives unto others, their fields to those that shall possess [them]; for every one, from the least even unto the greatest, is given to covetousness; from the prophet even unto the priest, every one dealeth falsely.

¹¹ And they have healed the breach of the daughter of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace! when there is no peace.

¹² Are they ashamed that they have committed abomination? Nay, they are not at all ashamed, and they know not how to blush. Therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall stumble, saith Jehovah.

¹³ I will utterly take them away, saith Jehovah: there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig-tree; and the leaf is faded: and I will give them up to those that shall pass over them.

¹⁴ Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fenced cities, and let us be silent there: for Jehovah our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against Jehovah.

¹⁵ Peace is looked for, and there is no good; a time of healing, and behold, terror.

¹⁶ The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: the whole land trembleth at the sound of the neighing of his steeds, and they come, and devour the land, and all it contains, the city and those that dwell therein.

¹⁷ For behold, I send among you serpents, vipers against which there is no charm, and they shall bite you, saith Jehovah.

¹⁸ My comfort in my sadness! my heart is faint in me!

¹⁹ Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people, from a very far country: Is not Jehovah in Zion? Is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, with foreign vanities?

²⁰ The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

²¹ —For the breach of the daughter of my people am I crushed; I go mourning; astonishment hath taken hold of me.

²² Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? Why then is there no dressing applied for the healing of the daughter of my people?

9 Oh that my head were waters, and mine eye a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

² Oh that I had in the wilderness a traveller's lodging-place, that I might leave my people, and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

³ And they bend their tongue, their bow of falsehood, and not for fidelity are they valiant in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith Jehovah.

⁴ Take ye heed every one of his friend, and confide not in any brother; for every brother only supplanteth, and every friend goeth about with slander.

⁵ And they act deceitfully every one with his neighbour, and speak not the truth: they teach their tongue to speak falsehood, they weary themselves with perverse dealing.

⁶ Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith Jehovah.

⁷ Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how else could I do for the daughter of my people?

⁸ Their tongue is a murderous arrow; it speaketh deceit. [A man] speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth his ambush.

⁹ Shall I not visit them for these [things]? saith Jehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

¹⁰ For the mountains will I take up weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness, a lamentation; for they are burnt up, so that none passeth through them; and the voice of the cattle is not heard. Both the fowl of the heavens and the beasts are fled; they are gone.

¹¹ And I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

¹² Who is a wise man, that he may understand this? and he to whom the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land perished, burnt up like a wilderness, so that none passeth through?

¹³ And Jehovah saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not hearkened unto my voice, nor walked in it,

¹⁴ but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them;

¹⁵ therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink,

¹⁶ and will scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them.

¹⁷ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come, and send for the skilful women, that they may come;

¹⁸ and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids pour forth waters.

¹⁹ For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled, sorely put to shame! For we have forsaken the land, for they have cast down our dwellings.

²⁰ Hear then the word of Jehovah, ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and each one her companion lamentation.

²¹ For death is come up through our windows, is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from the street, the young men from the broadways.

²² Speak, Thus saith Jehovah: Yea, the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the reaper, and there shall be none to gather.

²³ Thus saith Jehovah: Let not the wise glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty glory in his might; let not the rich glory in his riches:

²⁴ but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I [am] Jehovah, who exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith Jehovah.

²⁵ Behold, days are coming, saith Jehovah, when I will visit all [them that are] circumcised with the uncircumcised;

²⁶ Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners [of their beard] cut off, that dwell in the wilderness: for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.