Jeremiah / The Coming Calamity on the Land

The Coming Calamity on the Land

Jeremiah 4:5-31

Chapter 4

⁵ Declare in Judah and make it heard in Jerusalem, and say, "Blow the ram's horn in the land, call, gather, and say, 'Assemble, and let us go up to the fortified cities.'" ⁶ Raise a banner toward Zion; strengthen yourselves; do not stand, for I am bringing evil from the north, and a great breaking. ⁷ A lion has come up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has gone out from his place to make your land a desolation; your cities will be burned without inhabitant. ⁸ For this, put on sackcloth, lament and wail, for the burning anger of the LORD has not turned back from us. ⁹ And it will be in that day, says the LORD, the heart of the king will perish and the heart of the princes, and the priests will be appalled and the prophets will be astounded. ¹⁰ And I said, "Ah! Lord GOD, surely you have deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, 'You will have peace,' but the sword has reached the soul." ¹¹ At that time they will say to this people and to Jerusalem: A wind from the barren heights in the wilderness, on the way of the daughter of my people—not to winnow and not to cleanse. ¹² A full wind from these places will come to me; now I will also speak judgments against them. ¹³ Look, he will ascend like clouds, and his chariots like a storm wind—his horses swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are plundered. ¹⁴ Wash the evil from your heart, Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will your evil thoughts lodge within you? ¹⁵ For a voice declares from Dan, and proclaims iniquity from Mount Ephraim. ¹⁶ "Mention to the nations, 'Behold, proclaim it in Jerusalem: besiegers are coming from a distant land, and they raise their voice against the cities of Judah.'" ¹⁷ As keepers of a field they surround her, for she has rebelled against me," says the LORD. ¹⁸ Your ways and your doings have done this to you; this is your evil, because it is bitter, because it has reached all the way to your heart. ¹⁹ My bowels! My bowels! I am in anguish. The walls of my heart! My heart overwhelms me. I cannot be silent, for you, my soul, have heard the sound of the shofar, the shout of war. ²⁰ "Destruction upon destruction is announced, for the whole land is plundered suddenly; my tent is plundered in a moment, and my curtains in an instant." ²¹ Until when will I see a banner? Will I hear the voice of a ram's horn? ²² For my people are fools; they have not known me. They are foolish sons, and they do not understand. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have not known. ²³ I looked at the earth, and behold—formlessness and emptiness; and at the heavens, and their light was gone. ²⁴ I saw the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, and all the hills were upheaved. ²⁵ I saw, and behold, there is no Adam, and all the birds of the heavens have fled. ²⁶ I looked, and behold, Carmel was a wilderness, and all its cities were torn down before the LORD, before the heat of his anger. ²⁷ For thus says the LORD: Desolation will be all the land, and I will finish it—I will not spare it. ²⁸ For this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above will grow dark, for I have spoken, I have planned, and I will not relent, nor will I turn back from it. ²⁹ At the sound of the horseman and the quiver every bow flees; every city—people have come into cities and gone up into palms; every city is abandoned, and there is no dweller in them, no man. ³⁰ And your breasts—what will you do? Though you clothe yourself in crimson, though you adorn yourself with gold ornaments, though you tear your eyes with antimony, in vain you beautify yourself. Your lovers have rejected you; they seek your soul. ³¹ For I have heard a voice as of a sick woman, distress as of one giving birth. The voice of Daughter Zion gasps; she spreads her palms—"Alas for me now! For my nephesh is weary with slayings."