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Jeremiah / The Siege and Devastation of Jerusalem
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The Call and Commission of Jeremiah Israel's Unfaithfulness and Call to Repentance Judah's Spiritual Adultery and Call to Return The Coming Calamity on the Land An Accusation against Jerusalem's Corruption The Siege and Devastation of Jerusalem The Temple Sermon: False Security Condemned Violence and Corruption in the Land Persistent Idolatry and Coming Punishment The Folly of Idols Judah's Flight and Jeremiah's Lament A Prayer for Direction and Deliverance The Broken Covenant and a Public Warning Conspiracy against Jeremiah and God's Vindication Jeremiah's Complaint to God A Call to Endure and Judgment on Nations The Linen Belt: Symbol of Judah's Humiliation A Sign of Shame and Pronounced Judgment A Lament of Shame and Imminent Disaster Famine, False Prophets, and Divine Judgment Symbolic Acts and the People's Sinfulness Warning about Sabbath Violations The Potter and the Broken Jar: Judgment on Jerusalem Persecution by Pashhur the Priest Jeremiah's Lament and Resolve A Message to the Royal House: Doom for Jerusalem Judgment on the Kings and Royal House False Shepherds Condemned and a Righteous Branch Promised Condemnation of False Prophets The Lord Rebukes False Oracles The Two Figs: Exile and Remnant Seventy Years of Babylonian Dominion The Cup of God's Wrath on the Nations Jeremiah's Temple Address, Arrest, and Vindication The Yoke of Babylon and Call to Submit Hananiah's False Prophecy and Its Rebuke Letter to the Exiles: Seek the Welfare of Babylon Shemaiah's Letter and Its Condemnation The Book of Comfort: Restoration and the New Covenant Jeremiah Buys a Field: Faith and Hope in Captivity Promise of Restoration and the Davidic Covenant Zedekiah's Appeal and Jeremiah's Warning Breach of Covenant and Punishment for Oppression The Rechabites' Fidelity as a Rebuke to Judah Baruch Writes Jeremiah's Words and the Scroll Is Burned Jeremiah Imprisoned during the Siege of Jerusalem Jeremiah Cast into a Cistern Ebed‑Melech Rescues Jeremiah; Zedekiah's Failure The Fall of Jerusalem and Jeremiah's Release Gedaliah Appointed Governor and Jeremiah's Choice Assassination of Gedaliah and the Terror in Judah Rejection of Jeremiah's Counsel and Flight to Egypt The Jews in Egypt: Idolatry and Condemnation A Word to Baruch: Encouragement and Warning Oracles against Egypt Judgment on the Philistines Judgment on Moab Judgment on Ammon Judgment on Edom Judgment on Damascus and Aram Destruction of Kedar and the Nomads Judgment on Elam and Future Restoration Judgment on Babylon and Its Final Fall The Fall of Jerusalem and Zedekiah's Fate Jehoiachin's Release from Babylonian Captivity

The Siege and Devastation of Jerusalem

Jeremiah 6:1-30

6
Chapter 6
1 Flee for safety, Benjaminites, from the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the shofar in Tekoa, and raise a signal over Beth-haccherem; for disaster has appeared from the north, and great destruction. 2 The pasture and the delight I have likened to the daughter of Zion. 3 To her they will come—evils and their flocks. They have pitched their tents all around her. He has pastured—a man—his hand. 4 Sanctify war against her! Arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us, for the day has turned; the shadows of evening stretch. 5 Arise, and let us go up in the night and let us corrupt her palaces. 6 For thus says the LORD of hosts: Cut a plan and pour out a siege-ramp against Jerusalem; she is the city visited completely—oppression in her midst. 7 As a cistern causes its waters to bubble up, so her city bubbles up her evil—violence and destruction are heard in her; wounds and blows are heard continually upon her streets. 8 Discipline Jerusalem, lest my vital life force be torn away from you, lest I set you as a desolation, an earth not inhabited. 9 Thus says the LORD of Hosts: Glean, glean the remnant of Israel like a vine; turn back your hand like a grape gatherer over the baskets. 10 To whom shall I speak and testify so they may hear? Look, their ears are uncircumcised; they are not able to listen. Look, the word of the LORD has become a reproach to them; they do not delight in it. 11 And I am filled with the wrath of the LORD. I am weary with holding it in; it will pour out on the suckling infant in the street and on the company of young men together. For even man and woman will be captured, elder with one full of days. 12 And their houses will be turned over to others, fields and wives together, for I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land—oracle of the LORD. 13 For from their small ones to their great ones, all of them are greedily pursuing greed, and from prophet to priest, all of them do falsehood. 14 They healed the fracture of my people lightly, saying, "Peace, peace," but there is no peace. 15 They were ashamed, for they did an abomination. Even they were ashamed—they did not know shame. Even the finished ones they did not know. Therefore they will fall among disasters; at the time of your visiting them they will stumble—oracle of the LORD. 16 The LORD says: Stand at the crossroads and see, and ask for the ancient paths, "Which is the good way?" and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. And they said, "No, we will not." 17 And I will set watchmen over you; listen to the voice of the shofar, but they said, "No, we will not listen." 18 Therefore, nations, hear, and you, assembly, know what is in them. 19 Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing calamity against this people, the fruit of their thoughts; for they did not listen to my words, and my Torah—and they rejected it. 20 Why does frankincense from Sheba come to me, and the best incense from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices do not please me. 21 Therefore the LORD says: See, I am bringing stumbling blocks to this people, and they will stumble over them; fathers and sons together, neighbor and friend, and they will perish. 22 This is what the LORD says: Look, a people comes from the land of the north, and a great nation stirs from the ends of the earth. 23 They will grasp bow and javelin; he is cruel and they will not have compassion. Their voice will roar like the sea, and they will ride on horses, arrayed like a man for battle against you, daughter Zion. 24 We have heard the report—our hands have grown slack. Distress has gripped us—strength—like a woman giving birth. 25 Do not go out into the field, and do not walk on the way, for the sword—enemy terror—is all around. 26 Daughter of my people, gird sackcloth and roll in ashes; make mourning for an only one, make for yourself a wailing of dirges, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us. 27 I have given you a tester among my people, a fortress, and you will know and test their way. 28 They are all rebels, rebellious ones, slanderers, bronze and iron; they all are destroyers. 29 The bellows snort from the fire; the lead is finished in vain; the refiner refines in vain, and the wicked are not cleared. 30 They called them rejected silver, for the LORD has rejected them.