Jérémie (NAB) 1
1 1 The words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, of a priestly family in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin. 2 The word of the LORD first came to him in the days of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign,3 and continued through the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the downfall and exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king of Judah.
4 The word of the LORD came to me thus:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you. 6 "Ah, Lord GOD!" I said, "I know not how to speak; I am too young." 7 But the LORD answered me, Say not, "I am too young." To whomever I send you, you shall go; whatever I command you, you shall speak.8 Have no fear before them, because I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.9 Then the LORD extended his hand and touched my mouth, saying, See, I place my words in your mouth!10 This day I set you over nations and over kingdoms, To root up and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant.
11 The word of the LORD came to me with the question: What do you see, Jeremiah? "I see a branch of the watching-tree," I replied. 12 Then the LORD said to me: Well have you seen, for I am watching to fulfill my word.13 A second time the word of the LORD came to me with the question: What do you see? "I see a boiling cauldron," I replied, "that appears from the north." 14 And from the north, said the LORD to me, evil will boil over upon all who dwell in the land.15 Lo, I am summoning all the kingdoms of the north, says the LORD; Each king shall come and set up his throne at the gateways of Jerusalem, Opposite her walls all around and opposite all the cities of Judah.16 I will pronounce my sentence against them for all their wickedness in forsaking me, And in burning incense to strange gods and adoring their own handiwork.17 But do you gird your loins; stand up and tell them all that I command you. Be not crushed on their account, as though I would leave you crushed before them;18 For it is I this day who have made you a fortified city, A pillar of iron, a wall of brass, against the whole land: Against Judah's kings and princes, against its priests and people.19 They will fight against you, but not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.
2 1 This word of the LORD came to me:
2 Go, cry out this message for Jerusalem to hear! I remember the devotion of your youth, how you loved me as a bride, Following me in the desert, in a land unsown.
3 Sacred to the LORD was Israel, the first fruits of his harvest; Should anyone presume to partake of them, evil would befall him, says the LORD.
4 Listen to the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob! All you clans of the house of Israel,
5 thus says the LORD: What fault did your fathers find in me that they withdrew from me, Went after empty idols, and became empty themselves?
6 They did not ask, "Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, Who led us through the desert, through a land of wastes and gullies, Through a land of drought and darkness, through a land which no one crosses, where no man dwells?"
7 When I brought you into the garden land to eat its goodly fruits, You entered and defiled my land, you made my heritage loathsome.
8 The priests asked not, "Where is the LORD?" Those who dealt with the law knew me not: the shepherds rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after useless idols.
9 Therefore will I yet accuse you, says the LORD, and even your children's children I will accuse.
10 Pass over to the coast of the Kittim and see, send to Kedar and carefully inquire: Where has the like of this been done?
11 Does any other nation change its gods?-- yet they are not gods at all! But my people have changed their glory for useless things.
12 Be amazed at this, O heavens, and shudder with sheer horror, says the LORD.
13 Two evils have my people done: they have forsaken me, the source of living waters; They have dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water.
14 Is Israel a slave, a bondman by birth? Why then has he become booty?
15 Against him lions roar full-throated cries. They have made his land a waste; his cities are charred ruins, without inhabitant.
16 Yes, the people of Memphis and Tahpanhes shave the crown of your head.
17 Has not the forsaking of the LORD, your God, done this to you?
18 And now, why go to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Nile? Why go to Assyria, to drink the waters of the Euphrates?
19 Your own wickedness chastises you, your own infidelities punish you. Know then, and see, how evil and bitter is your forsaking the LORD, your God, And showing no fear of me, says the Lord, the GOD of hosts.
20 Long ago you broke your yoke, you tore off your bonds. "I will not serve," you said. On every high hill, under every green tree, you gave yourself to harlotry.
21 I had planted you, a choice vine of fully tested stock; How could you turn out obnoxious to me, a spurious vine?
22 Though you scour it with soap, and use much lye, The stain of your guilt is still before me, says the Lord GOD.
23 How can you say, "I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals"? Consider your conduct in the Valley, recall what you have done: A frenzied she-camel, coursing near and far,
24 breaking away toward the desert, Snuffing the wind in her ardor-- who can restrain her lust? No beasts need tire themselves seeking her; in her month they will meet her.
25 Stop wearing out your shoes and parching your throat! But you say, "No use! no! I love these strangers, and after them I must go."
26 As the thief is shamed when caught, so shall the house of Israel be shamed: They, their kings and their princes, their priests and their prophets;
27 They who say to a piece of wood, "You are my father," and to a stone, "You gave me birth." They turn to me their backs, not their faces; yet, in their time of trouble they cry out, "Rise up and save us!"
28 Where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up! Will they save you in your time of trouble? For as numerous as your cities are your gods, O Judah! And as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up for Baal.
29 How dare you still plead with me? You have all rebelled against me, says the LORD.
30 In vain I struck your children; the correction they did not take. Your sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion.
31 You, of this generation, take note of the word of the Lord: Have I been a desert to Israel, a land of darkness? Why do my people say, "We have moved on, we will come to you no more"?
32 Does a virgin forget her jewelry, a bride her sash? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
33 How well you pick your way when seeking love! You who, in your wickedness, have gone by ways unclean!
34 You, on whose clothing there is the life-blood of the innocent, whom you found committing no burglary;
35 Yet withal you say, "I am innocent; at least, his anger is turned away from me." Behold, I will judge you on that word of yours, "I have not sinned."
36 How very base you have become in changing your course! By Egypt will you be shamed, as you were shamed by Assyria.
37 From there also shall you go away with hands upon your head; For the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust, with them you will have no success.
3 1 If a man sends away his wife and, after leaving him, she marries another man, Does the first husband come back to her? Would not the land be wholly defiled? But you have sinned with many lovers, and yet you would return to me! says the LORD.
2 Lift your eyes to the heights, and see, where have men not lain with you? By the waysides you waited for them like an Arab in the desert. You defiled the land by your wicked harlotry.
3 Therefore the showers were withheld, the spring rain failed. But because you have a harlot's brow, you refused to blush.
4 Even now do you not call me, "My father, you who are the bridegroom of my youth"?
5 "Will he keep his wrath forever, will he hold his grudge to the end?" This is what you say; yet you do all the evil you can.
6 The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: See now what rebellious Israel has done! She has gone up every high mountain, and under every green tree she has played the harlot.7 And I thought, after she has done all this she will return to me. But she did not return. Then, even though her traitor sister Judah saw8 that for all the adulteries rebellious Israel had committed, I put her away and gave her a bill of divorce, nevertheless her traitor sister Judah was not frightened; she too went off and played the harlot.9 Eager to sin, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and wood.10 With all this, the traitor sister Judah did not return to me wholeheartedly, but insincerely, says the LORD.
11 Then the LORD said to me: Rebel Israel is inwardly more just than traitorous Judah.
12 Go, proclaim these words toward the north, and say: Return, rebel Israel, says the LORD, I will not remain angry with you; For I am merciful, says the LORD, I will not continue my wrath forever.
13 Only know your guilt: how you rebelled against the LORD, your God, How you ran hither and yon to strangers (under every green tree) and would not listen to my voice, says the LORD.
14 Return, rebellious children, says the LORD, for I am your Master; I will take you, one from a city, two from a clan, and bring you to Zion.
15 I will appoint over you shepherds after my own heart, who will shepherd you wisely and prudently.
16 When you multiply and become fruitful in the land, says the LORD, They will in those days no longer say, "The ark of the covenant of the LORD!" They will no longer think of it, or remember it, or miss it, or make another.
17 At that time they will call Jerusalem the LORD'S throne; there all nations will be gathered together to honor the name of the LORD at Jerusalem, and they will walk no longer in their hardhearted wickedness.
18 In those days the house of Judah will join the house of Israel; together they will come from the land of the north to the land which I gave to your fathers as a heritage.
19 I had thought: How I should like to treat you as sons, And give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful among the nations! You would call me, "My Father," I thought, and never cease following me.
20 But like a woman faithless to her lover, even so have you been faithless to me, O house of Israel, says the LORD.
21 A cry is heard on the heights! the plaintive weeping of Israel's children, Because they have perverted their ways and forgotten the LORD, their God.
22 Return, rebellious children, and I will cure you of your rebelling. "Here we are, we now come to you because you are the LORD, our God.
23 Deceptive indeed are the hills, the thronging mountains; In the LORD, our God, alone is the salvation of Israel.
24 The shame-god has devoured our fathers' toil from our youth, Their sheep and their cattle, their sons and their daughters.
25 Let us lie down in our shame, let our disgrace cover us, for we have sinned against the LORD, our God, From our youth to this day, we and our fathers also; we listened not to the voice of the LORD, our God."
4 1 If you wish to return, O Israel, says the LORD, return to me. If you put your detestable things out of my sight, and do not stray,
2 Then you can swear, "As the LORD lives," in truth, in judgment, and in justice; Then shall the nations use his name in blessing, and glory in him.
3 For to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, thus says the LORD: Till your untilled ground, sow not among thorns.
4 For the sake of the LORD, be circumcised, remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem; Lest my anger break out like fire, and burn till none can quench it, because of your evil deeds.
5 Proclaim it in Judah, make it heard in Jerusalem; Blow the trumpet through the land, summon the recruits! Say, "Fall in, let us march to the fortified cities."
6 Bear the standard to Zion, seek refuge without delay! Evil I bring from the north, and great destruction.
7 Up comes the lion from his lair, the destroyer of nations has set out, has left his place, To turn your land into desolation, till your cities lie waste and empty.
8 So gird yourselves with sackcloth, mourn and wail: "The blazing wrath of the LORD is not turned away from us."
9 In that day, says the LORD, The king will lose heart, and the princes; the priests will be amazed, and the prophets stunned.
10 "Alas! Lord GOD," they will say, "You only deceived us When you said: Peace shall be yours; for the sword touches our very soul."
11 At that time it will be said of this people and of Jerusalem, "From the glaring heights through the desert a wind comes toward the daughter of my people." Not to winnow, not to cleanse,
12 does this wind from the heights come at my bidding; And I myself now pronounce sentence upon them.
13 See! like storm clouds he advances, like a hurricane his chariots; Swifter than eagles are his steeds: "Woe to us! we are ruined."
14 Cleanse your heart of evil, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved. How long must your pernicious thoughts lodge within you?
15 Listen! They proclaim it from Dan, from Mount Ephraim they announce destruction:
16 "Make this known to the nations, announce it to Jerusalem: The besiegers are coming from the distant land, shouting their war cry against the cities of Judah."
17 Like watchmen of the fields they surround her, for she has rebelled against me, says the LORD.
18 Your conduct, your misdeeds, have done this to you; how bitter is this disaster of yours, how it reaches to your very heart!
19 My breast! my breast! how I suffer! The walls of my heart! My heart beats wildly, I cannot be still; For I have heard the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
20 Ruin after ruin is reported; the whole earth is laid waste. In an instant my tents are ravaged; in a flash, my shelters.
21 How long must I see that signal, hear that trumpet sound!
22 Fools my people are, they know me not; Senseless children they are, having no understanding; They are wise in evil, but know not how to do good.
23 I looked at the earth, and it was waste and void; at the heavens, and their light had gone out!
24 I looked at the mountains, and they were trembling, and all the hills were crumbling!
25 I looked and behold, there was no man; even the birds of the air had flown away!
26 I looked and behold, the garden land was a desert, with all its cities destroyed before the LORD, before his blazing wrath.
27 For thus says the LORD: Waste shall the whole land be; I will (not) wholly destroy it.
28 Because of this the earth shall mourn, the heavens above shall darken; I have spoken, I will not repent, I have resolved, I will not turn back.
29 At the shout of horseman and bowman each city takes to flight; They shrink into the thickets, they scale the rocks: All the cities are abandoned, and no one dwells in them.
30 You now who are doomed, what do you mean by putting on purple, bedecking yourself with gold, Shading your eyes with cosmetics, beautifying yourself in vain? Your lovers spurn you, they seek your life.
31 Yes, I hear the moaning, as of a woman in travail, like the anguish of a mother with her first child- The cry of daughter Zion gasping, as she stretches forth her hands: "Ah, woe is me! I sink exhausted before the slayers!"
5 1 Roam the streets of Jerusalem, look about and observe, Search through her public places, to find even one Who lives uprightly and seeks to be faithful, and I will pardon her!
2 Though they say, "As the LORD lives," they swear falsely.
3 O LORD, do your eyes not look for honesty? You struck them, but they did not cringe; you laid them low, but they refused correction; They set their faces harder than stone, and refused to return to you.
4 It is only the lowly, I thought, who are foolish; For they know not the way of the LORD, their duty to their God.
5 I will go to the great ones and speak with them; For they know the way of the LORD, their duty to their God. But, one and all, they had broken the yoke, torn off the harness.
6 Therefore lions from the forest slay them, wolves of the desert ravage them, Leopards keep watch round their cities: all who come out are torn to pieces For their many crimes and their numerous rebellions.
7 Why should I pardon you these things? Your sons have forsaken me, they swear by gods that are not. I fed them, but they committed adultery; to the harlot's house they throng.
8 Lustful stallions they are, each neighs after another's wife.
9 Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD; On a nation such as this shall I not take vengeance?
10 Climb to her terraces, and ravage them, destroy them (not) wholly. Tear away her tendrils, they do not belong to the LORD.
11 For they have openly rebelled against me, both the house of Israel and the house of Judah, says the LORD.
12 They denied the LORD, saying, "Not he-- No evil shall befall us, neither sword nor famine shall we see.
13 The prophets have become wind, and the word is not in them. May their threats be carried out against themselves!"
14 Now, for this that you have said, says the LORD, the God of hosts- Behold, I make my words in your mouth, a fire, And this people is the wood that it shall devour!--
15 Beware, I will bring against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, says the LORD; A long-lived nation, an ancient nation, a people whose language you know not, whose speech you cannot understand.
16 Their quivers are like open graves; all of them are warriors.
17 They will devour your harvest and your bread, devour your sons and your daughters, Devour your sheep and cattle, devour your vines and fig trees; They will beat flat with the sword the fortified city in which you trust.
18 Yet even in those days, says the LORD, I will not wholly destroy you.
19 And when they ask, "Why has the LORD done all these things to us?" say to them, "As you have forsaken me to serve strange gods in your own land, so shall you serve strangers in a land not your own."
20 Announce this to the house of Jacob, proclaim it in Judah:
21 Pay attention to this, foolish and senseless people Who have eyes and see not, who have ears and hear not.
22 Should you not fear me, says the LORD, should you not tremble before me? I made the sandy shore the sea's limit, which by eternal decree it may not overstep. Toss though it may, it is to no avail; though its billows roar, they cannot pass.
23 But this people's heart is stubborn and rebellious; they turn and go away,
24 And say not in their hearts, "Let us fear the LORD, our God, Who gives us rain early and late, in its time; Who watches for us over the appointed weeks of harvest."
25 Your crimes have prevented these things, your sins have turned back these blessings from you.
26 For there are among my people criminals; like fowlers they set traps, but it is men they catch.
27 Their houses are as full of treachery as a bird-cage is of birds; Therefore they grow powerful and rich,
28 fat and sleek. They go their wicked way; justice they do not defend By advancing the claim of the fatherless or judging the cause of the poor.
29 Shall I not punish these things? says the LORD; on a nation such as this shall I not take vengeance?
30 A shocking, horrible thing has happened in the land:
31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests teach as they wish; Yet my people will have it so; what will you do when the end comes?
6 1 Flee, sons of Benjamin, out of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa, raise a signal over Beth-haccherem; For evil threatens from the north, and mighty destruction.
2 O lovely and delicate daughter Zion, you are ruined!
3 Against her, shepherds come with their flocks; all around, they pitch their tents, each one grazes his portion.
4 "Prepare for war against her, Up! let us rush upon her at midday! Alas! the day is waning, evening shadows lengthen;
5 Up! let us rush upon her by night, destroy her palaces!"
6 For thus says the LORD of hosts: Hew down her trees, throw up a siege mound against Jerusalem. Woe to the city marked for punishment; nought but oppression within her!
7 As the well gushes out its waters, so she gushes out her wickedness. Violence and destruction resound in her; ever before me are wounds and blows.
8 Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I be estranged from you; Lest I turn you into a desert, a land where no man dwells.
9 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Glean, glean like a vine the remnant of Israel; Pass your hand, like a vintager, repeatedly over the tendrils.
10 To whom shall I speak? whom shall I warn, and be heard? See! their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot give heed; See, the word of the LORD has become for them an object of scorn, which they will not have.
11 Therefore my wrath brims up within me, I am weary of holding it in; I will pour it out upon the child in the street, upon the young men gathered together. Yes, all will be taken, husband and wife, graybeard with ancient.
12 Their houses will fall to strangers, their fields and their wives as well; For I will stretch forth my hand against those who dwell in this land, says the LORD.
13 Small and great alike, all are greedy for gain; prophet and priest, all practice fraud.
14 They would repair, as though it were nought, the injury to my people: "Peace, peace!" they say, though there is no peace.
15 They are odious; they have done abominable things, yet they are not at all ashamed, they know not how to blush. Hence they shall be among those who fall; in their time of punishment they shall go down, says the LORD.
16 Thus says the LORD: Stand beside the earliest roads, ask the pathways of old Which is the way to good, and walk it; thus you will find rest for your souls. But they said, "We will not walk it."
17 When I raised up watchmen for them: "Hearken to the sound of the trumpet!" they said, "We will not hearken."
18 Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O earth, what I will do with them:
19 See, I bring evil upon this people, the fruit of their own schemes, Because they heeded not my words, because they despised my law.
20 Of what use to me incense that comes from Sheba, or sweet cane from far-off lands? Your holocausts find no favor with me, your sacrifices please me not.
21 Therefore, thus says the LORD: See, I will place before this people obstacles to bring them down; Fathers and sons alike, neighbors and friends shall perish.
22 Thus says the LORD: See, a people comes from the land of the north, a great nation, roused from the ends of the earth.
23 Bow and javelin they wield; cruel and pitiless are they. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride forth on steeds, Each in his place, for battle against you, daughter Zion.
24 We hear the report of them; helpless fall our hands, Anguish takes hold of us, throes like a mother's in childbirth.
25 Go not forth into the field, step not into the street, Beware of the enemy's sword; terror on every side!
26 O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes. Mourn as for an only child with bitter wailing, For sudden upon us comes the destroyer.
27 A tester among my people I have appointed you, to search and test their way.
28 Arch-rebels are they all, dealers in slander, all of them corrupt.
29 The bellows roars, the lead is consumed by the fire; In vain has the smelter refined, the wicked are not drawn off.
30 "Silver rejected" they shall be called, for the LORD has rejected them.
7 1 The following message came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
2 Stand at the gate of the house of the LORD, and there proclaim this message: Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD!
3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Reform your ways and your deeds, so that I may remain with you in this place.
4 Put not your trust in the deceitful words: "This is the temple of the LORD! The temple of the LORD! The temple of the LORD!"
5 Only if you thoroughly reform your ways and your deeds; if each of you deals justly with his neighbor;
6 if you no longer oppress the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow; if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place, or follow strange gods to your own harm,
7 will I remain with you in this place, in the land which I gave your fathers long ago and forever.
8 But here you are, putting your trust in deceitful words to your own loss!
9 Are you to steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, go after strange gods that you know not,
10 and yet come to stand before me in this house which bears my name, and say: "We are safe; we can commit all these abominations again"?
11 Has this house which bears my name become in your eyes a den of thieves? I too see what is being done, says the LORD.
12 You may go to Shiloh, which I made the dwelling place of my name in the beginning. See what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.
13 And now, because you have committed all these misdeeds, says the LORD, because you did not listen, though I spoke to you untiringly; because you did not answer, though I called you,
14 I will do to this house named after me, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, just as I did to Shiloh.
15 I will cast you away from me, as I cast away all your brethren, all the offspring of Ephraim.
16 You, now, do not intercede for this people; raise not in their behalf a pleading prayer! Do not urge me, for I will not listen to you.
17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem?
18 The children gather wood, their fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, while libations are poured out to strange gods in order to hurt me.
19 Is it I whom they hurt, says the LORD; is it not rather themselves, to their own confusion?
20 See now, says the Lord GOD, my anger and my wrath will pour out upon this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruits of the earth; it will burn without being quenched.
21 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Heap your holocausts upon your sacrifices; eat up the flesh!
22 In speaking to your fathers on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I gave them no command concerning holocaust or sacrifice.
23 This rather is what I commanded them: Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Walk in all the ways that I command you, so that you may prosper.
24 But they obeyed not, nor did they pay heed. They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.
25 From the day that your fathers left the land of Egypt even to this day, I have sent you untiringly all my servants the prophets.
26 Yet they have not obeyed me nor paid heed; they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers.
27 When you speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you either; when you call to them, they will not answer you.
28 Say to them: This is the nation which does not listen to the voice of the LORD, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.
29 Cut off your dedicated hair and throw it away! on the heights intone an elegy; For the LORD has rejected and cast off the generation that draws down his wrath.
30 The people of Judah have done what is evil in my eyes, says the LORD. They have defiled the house which bears my name by setting up in it their abominable idols.
31 In the Valley of Ben-hinnom they have built the high place of Topheth to immolate in fire their sons and their daughters, such a thing as I never commanded or had in mind.
32 Therefore, beware! days will come, says the LORD, when Topheth and the Valley of Ben-hinnom will no longer be called such, but rather the Valley of Slaughter. For lack of space, Topheth will be a burial place.
33 The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the field, which no one will drive away.
34 In the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem I will silence the cry of joy, the cry of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land will be turned to rubble.
8 1 At that time, says the LORD, the bones of the kings and princes of Judah, the bones of the priests and the prophets, and the bones of the citizens of Jerusalem will be emptied out of their graves2 and spread out before the sun and the moon and the whole army of heaven, which they loved and served, which they followed, consulted, and worshiped. They will not be gathered up for burial, but will lie like dung upon the ground. 3 Death will be preferred to life by all the survivors of this wicked race who remain in any of the places to which I banish them, says the LORD of hosts.
4 Tell them: Thus says the LORD: When someone falls, does he not rise again? if he goes astray, does he not turn back?
5 Why do these people rebel with obstinate resistance? Why do they cling to deceptive idols, refuse to turn back?
6 I listen closely: they speak what is not true; No one repents of his wickedness, saying, "What have I done!" Everyone keeps on running his course, like a steed dashing into battle.
7 Even the stork in the air knows it seasons; Turtledove, swallow and thrush observe their time of return, But my people do not know the ordinance of the LORD.
8 How can you say, "We are wise, we have the law of the LORD"? Why, that has been changed into falsehood by the lying pen of the scribes!
9 The wise are confounded, dismayed and ensnared; Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, of what avail is their wisdom?
10 Therefore, I will give their wives to strangers, their fields to spoilers. Small and great alike, all are greedy for gain, prophet and priest, all practice fraud.
11 They would repair, as though it were nought, the injury to the daughter of my people: "Peace, peace!" they say, though there is no peace.
12 They are odious; they have done abominable things, yet they are not at all ashamed, they know not how to blush. Hence they shall be among those who fall; in their time of punishment they shall go down, says the LORD.
13 I will gather them all in, says the LORD: no grapes on the vine, No figs on the fig trees, foliage withered!
14 Why do we remain here? Let us form ranks and enter the walled cities, to perish there; For the LORD has wrought our destruction, he has given us poison to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
15 We wait for peace to no avail; for a time of healing, but terror comes instead.
16 From Dan is heard the snorting of his steeds; The neighing of his stallions shakes the whole land. They come devouring the land and all it contains, the city and those who dwell in it.
17 Yes, I will send against you poisonous snakes, Against which no charm will work when they bite you, says the LORD.
18 My grief is incurable, my heart within me is faint.
19 Listen! the cry of the daughter of my people, far and wide in the land! Is the LORD no longer in Zion, is her King no longer in her midst? (Why do they provoke me with their idols, with their foreign nonentities?)
20 "The harvest has passed, the summer is at an end, and yet we are not safe!"
21 I am broken by the ruin of the daughter of my people. I am disconsolate; horror has seized me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead, no physician there? Why grows not new flesh over the wound of the daughter of my people? 23 Oh, that my head were a spring of water, my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night over the slain of the daughter of my people!
Jérémie (NAB) 1