6 1 The coming of the Assyrians and Chaldeans. 16 He exhorteth the Jews to repentance.
1 O ye children of Benjamin, prepare to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa: set up a standard upon Beth-Haccerem: for a plague appeareth out of the North and great destruction.
2 I have compared the daughter of Zion to a beautiful and dainty woman.
3 The Pastors with their flocks shall come unto her: they shall pitch their tents round about by her, and everyone shall feed in his place.
4 Prepare war against her: arise, and let us go up toward the South: woe unto us: for the day declineth, and the shadows of the evening are stretched out.
5 Arise, and let us go up by night, and destroy her palaces.
6 For thus hath the Lord of hosts said, Hew down wood, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this city must be visited; all oppression is in the midst of it.
7 As the fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her malice; cruelty and spoil is continually heard in her before me, with sorrow and strokes.
8 Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee, lest I make thee desolate as a land that none inhabiteth.
9 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall gather as a vine, the residue of Israel: turn back thine hand as the grape gatherer into the baskets.
10 Unto whom shall I speak, and admonish that they may hear? behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the Lord is unto them as a reproach: they have no delight in it.
11 Therefore I am full of the wrath of the Lord: I am weary with holding it: I will pour it out upon the children in the street, and likewise upon the assembly of the young men: for the husband shall even be taken with the wife, and the aged with him that is full of days.
12 And their houses with their lands, and wives also shall be turned unto strangers: for I will stretch out mine hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord.
13 For from the least of them, even unto the greatest of them, everyone is given unto covetousness, and from the Prophet even unto the Priest, they all deal falsely.
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people with sweet words, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.
15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not ashamed, no neither could they have any shame: therefore they shall fall among the slain: when I shall visit them, they shall be cast down, saith the Lord.
16 Thus saith the Lord, Stand in the ways and behold, and ask for the old way, which is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk therein.
17 Also I set watchmen over you, which said, Take heed to the sound of the trumpet: but they said, We will not take heed.
18 Hear therefore, ye Gentiles, and thou Congregation know, what is among them.
19 Hear, O earth, behold, I will cause a plague to come upon this people, even the fruit of their own imaginations: because they have not taken heed unto my words, nor to my Law, but cast it off.
20 To what purpose bringest thou me incense from Sheba, and sweet calamus from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not pleasant, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.
21 Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them: the neighbor and his friend shall perish.
22 Thus saith the Lord, Behold, a people cometh from the North country, and a great nation shall arise from the sides of the earth.
23 With bow and shield shall they be weaponed: they are cruel and will have no compassion: their voice roareth like the sea, and they ride upon horses well appointed, like men of war against thee, O daughter Zion.
24 We have heard their fame, and our hands wax feeble: sorrow is come upon us, as the sorrow of a woman in travail.
25 Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way: for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side.
26 O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in the ashes: make lamentation, and bitter mourning as for thine only son: for the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us.
27 I have set thee for a defense and fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their ways.
28 They are all rebellious traitors, walking craftily; they are brass and iron, they all are destroyers,
29 The bellows are burnt; the lead is consumed in the fire; the founder melteth in vain; for the wicked are not taken away.
30 They shall call them reprobate silver, because the Lord hath rejected them.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 6:1
- Jeremiah 6:1
- Jeremiah 6:1
- Jeremiah 6:2
- Jeremiah 6:3
- Jeremiah 6:4
- Jeremiah 6:7
- Jeremiah 6:8
- Jeremiah 6:9
- Jeremiah 6:10
- Jeremiah 6:11
- Jeremiah 6:11
- Jeremiah 6:14
- Jeremiah 6:15
- Jeremiah 6:16
- Jeremiah 6:17
- Jeremiah 6:18
- Jeremiah 6:20
- Jeremiah 6:22
- Jeremiah 6:24
- Jeremiah 6:27
- Jeremiah 6:29
