Chapter 7
1; The Word that came to Jeremiah from YAHWEH, saying,
2; Stand in the gate of the house of YAHWEH and call out there this Word, and say, Hear the Word of YAHWEH all Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship YAHWEH.
3; So says YAHWEH of Hosts, the Elohim of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will let you dwell in this place.
4; Do not trust yourself to lying words, saying, The temple of YAHWEH! The temple of YAHWEH! This is the temple of YAHWEH!
5; For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor;
6; if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow; and do not pour out innocent blood in this place, or walk after other Elohim to your evil;
7; then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from forever and to forever.
8; Behold, you trust for yourself on lying words without being of use.
9; Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other Elohim whom you do not know?
10; And will you then come and stand before Me in this house on which My name is called, and say, We are delivered in order to do all those detestable things.
11; Has this house on which My name is called become a den of violent ones in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen, declares YAHWEH.
12; But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the evil of My people Israel.
13; And now, because you have done all these works, says YAHWEH, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear. Yea, I called you, but you did not answer.
14; And I will do to the house on which My name is called, in which you are trusting, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.
15; And I will cast you out from My face as I cast out all your brothers, all the seed of Ephraim.
16; And you, do not pray for this people; do not lift up cry or prayer for them. Do not intercede with Me, for I do not hear you.
17; Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
18; The sons 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 to other gods, that they may provoke Me.
19; Do they provoke Me, says YAHWEH? Is it not themselves, to the shame of their own faces?
20; So Adonai YAHWEH says this: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and will not be put out.
21; So says YAHWEH of Hosts, the Elohim of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat flesh.
22; For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out from the land of Egypt, concerning matters of burnt offerings and sacrifices.
23; But I commanded them this thing, saying, Obey My voice, and I will be your Elohim, and you shall be My people. Also, Walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, so that it may be well with you.
24; But they did not listen nor bow their ear. But they walked in their own plans, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.
25; Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants, the prophets, daily rising up early and sending.
26; Yet they did not listen to Me nor bow their ear, but they stiffened their neck. They did more evil than their fathers.
27; And you shall speak all these Words to them, but they will not listen to you. And you will call to them, but they will not answer you.
28; But you shall say to them, This is the nation that does not obey the voice of YAHWEH their Elohim, nor receive instruction. Truth has perished, and it is cut off from their mouth.
29; Cut off your crown and throw it away, and lift up a dirge on the heights. For YAHWEH has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.
30; For the sons of Judah have done evil in My eyes, says YAHWEH. They have set their idols in the house on which is called by My name, in order to defile it.
31; They have built the high places of Tophet in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.
32; So, behold, the days come, declares YAHWEH, when it shall no more be called Tophet, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they shall bury in Tophet from lack of a place.
33; And the bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth; and no one shall frighten them away.
34; Then I will cause the voice of gladness to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem, even the voice of joy, and the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride. For the land shall become a waste.
Chapter 8
1; At that time, declares YAHWEH, they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its rulers, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of those living in Jerusalem, out of their graves.
2; And they shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of the heavens whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered or buried; they shall be dung on the face of the ground.
3; And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the rest of those who remain of this evil family, who remain there in all the places where I have driven them, says YAHWEH of Hosts.
4; And you shall say to them, So says YAHWEH, Shall they fall and not rise up? Or shall one turn away and not return?
5; Why has this people, Jerusalem, turned away to a never-ending apostasy? They hold fast to deceit. They refuse to return.
6; I listened and heard. They did not speak so. No man repented because of this evil, saying, What have I done? Everyone turned in their own courses, as a horse rushes into the battle.
7; Also the stork in the heavens knows her seasons, and the turtledove and the swallow and the thrush observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the judgment of YAHWEH.
8; How do you say, We are wise, and the Torah of YAHWEH is with us? Behold, the lying pen of the scribes has certainly worked deceit.
9; The wise are ashamed; they are terrified and are captured. Behold, they have rejected the Word of YAHWEH, and what wisdom is theirs?
10; So I will give their wives to others, their fields to those who shall inherit. For everyone from the least even to the greatest cuts off a profit. From the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely.
11; For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, Peace, peace! And there is no peace.
12; Were they ashamed when they had done hateful things? They were not even at all ashamed, nor did they know how to blush. So they shall fall among those who fall. In the time of their punishment they will wither, says YAHWEH.
13; I will utterly consume them, says YAHWEH. No grapes will be on the vine, or figs on the fig tree; even the leaf withers. And I will give to them those who pass over them.
14; Why do we sit still? Gather yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities; and let us be silent there. For YAHWEH our Elohim has made us silent there, and He has made us drink poisonous water, because we have sinned against YAHWEH.
15; We looked for peace, but no good came; for a time of healing, but, behold, terror!
16; The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan; all the land trembles at the sound of the neighing of his stallions. For they come and devour the land and its fullness, the city and those who live in it.
17; For behold, I will send serpents among you, vipers for which there is no charm; and they will bite you, says YAHWEH.
18; My refreshing is beyond grief; my heart is sick within me.
19; Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land! Is not YAHWEH in Zion? Or is not her king in her? Why have they provoked Me with their carved images, with foreign vanities?
20; Harvest has passed; the summer has ended, and we are not delivered.
21; For the breaking of the daughter of my people, I am broken. I mourn; horror has taken hold on me.
22; Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no healer there? Why then has the healing of the daughter of my people not come?
Chapter 9
1; Oh, that my head were waters and my eyes 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 a lodging place for travelers in the wilderness, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous ones.
3; And they bend their tongues, their bow is a lie. And they are not mighty for the truth on the earth, for they go from evil to evil. They also do not know Me, says YAHWEH.
4; Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor, and do not trust any brother. For every brother will supplant, and every neighbor will walk as a slanderer.
5; And everyone will deceive his neighbor, and they will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves to commit iniquity.
6; Your home is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know Me, says YAHWEH.
7; For this reason, so says YAHWEH of Hosts, Behold, I will refine them and test them. For what else can I do because of the daughter of My people?
8; Their tongue is a murdering arrow; it speaks deceit. One speaks peace with his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he sets his ambush.
9; Shall I not visit them for these things? says YAHWEH. Or shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10; I will take up a weeping and a wailing for the mountains and a mourning for the pastures of the wilderness. For they are burned up, without a man passing through. Yea, they do not hear the voice of cattle. From the fowl of the heavens and to the beast, they have fled; they are gone.
11; And I will make Jerusalem ruins, a den of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.
12; Who is the wise man that can understand this? And he to whom the mouth of
YAHWEH has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish? It is burned up like the wilderness, so that no one passes through.
13; And YAHWEH says, Because they have forsaken My Torah, which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, and have not walked in it;
14; but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them;
15; so YAHWEH of Hosts, the Elohim of Israel, says this: Behold, I will feed them, this people with wormwood, and make them drink poison waters.
16; I will also scatter them among the nations which they have not known, nor their fathers. And I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them.
17; So says YAHWEH of Hosts, Consider and call for the wailers, that they may come. And send for the wise women, that they may come.
18; And let them make haste and take up a lament over us, so that our eyes may run down with tears, and waters flow from our eyelids.
19; For the voice of lament is heard from Zion. How we are ravaged! We are greatly ashamed because we have forsaken the land; because they have thrown down our dwellings.
20; Yet hear the Word of YAHWEH, women. And let your ear receive the Word of His mouth, and teach your daughters a lament, and each one her neighbor a lamentation.
21; For death has come into our windows, entering into our fortresses, to cut off the children from the street, the young men from the plazas.
22; Speak, So says YAHWEH, Even the bodies of men shall fall as dung on the open field, and as the swath after the reaper, and no one shall gather them.
23; So says YAHWEH, Do not let the wise glory in his wisdom, and do not let the mighty glory in his might. Do not let the rich glory in his riches.
24; But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am
YAHWEH, doing kindness, justice and righteousness in the earth; for I delight in these, says YAHWEH.
25; Behold, the days come, says
YAHWEH, that I will punish all the circumcised with foreskin:
26; Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the sons of Ammon, and Moab, and all those trimmed on the edges of their beards, who dwell in the wilderness. For all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel, those uncircumcised of heart.
Chapter 10
1; Hear the Word which YAHWEH speaks to you, O house of Israel.
2; So says YAHWEH, Do not learn the way of the nations; and do not be terrified at the signs of the heavens; for the nations were terrified at them.
3; For the customs of the people are vanity. For one cuts a tree out of the forest with the axe, the work of the hands of the craftsman.
4; They adorn it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers, so that it will not wobble.
5; They are upright as the palm tree, and they cannot speak; carrying they must be carried, because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.
6; There is none like You, O YAHWEH; You are great, and Your name is great in might.
7; Who would not revere You, O King of the nations? For it is fitting to You, because there is none like You among all the wise of the nations, and in all their kingdoms.
8; But they are all together foolish and stupid; their tree is an instruction of vanities.
9; Silver beaten into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the craftsman and the hands of the goldsmith. Violet and purple is their clothing; they are all the works of skillful ones.
10; But YAHWEH is the true Elohim, He is the living Elohim and the ever- lasting King. At His wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to stand His indignation.
11; So you shall say to them, The gods who have not made the heavens and the earth, they shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.
12; It is He who made the earth by His power, who established the world by His wisdom, and who stretched out the heavens by His understanding.
13; When He utters His voice, there is a noise of waters in the heavens. He causes the vapors to go up from the ends of the earth; He makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind out of His storehouses.
14; Every man is stupid from lack of knowledge; every refiner is put to shame by the carved image. For his molten image is a lie and no breath is in them.
15; They are vanity, the work of delusion. In the time of their judgment they shall perish.
16; The Portion of Jacob is not like these. For He is the Former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; YAHWEH of Hosts is His name.
17; Gather up your bundle from the ground, you who live under the siege.
18; For so says YAHWEH, Behold, I will sling out those living in the land at this time, and I will distress them so that they may find Me.
19; Woe to me for my breaking! My wound is grievous. But I said, Truly this is a malady, and I must bear it.
20; My tent is ravaged, and all my cords are broken. My sons went away from me and they are not. There is no stretching out my tent any more, or setting up my curtains.
21; For the pastors have become stupid, and they have not sought YAHWEH. Therefore, they shall not be blessed, and all their flock shall be scattered.
22; Behold, the sound of report! It comes, and a great commotion from the land of the north, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a den of jackals.
23; O YAHWEH, I know that his way does not belong to man; it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
24; O YAHWEH, correct me, only with judgment, not in Your anger, that You do not bring me to nothing.
25; Pour out Your fury on the nations who do not know You, and on the families who do not call on Your name. For they have eaten up Jacob. Yea, they have devoured him and have destroyed him, and they have made his dwelling place desolate.
Chapter 11
1; The Word that came to Jeremiah from YAHWEH, saying,
2; Hear the Words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah, and to those living in Jerusalem,
3; and say to them, So says YAHWEH, the Elohim of Israel, Cursed is the man who does not obey the Words of this covenant,
4; which I commanded your fathers in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey My voice and do them according to all that I command you, so that you shall be My people, and I will be your Elohim;
5; in order to establish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then I answered and said, Amein, O YAHWEH.
6; And YAHWEH said to me, Declare all these Words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear the Words of this covenant and do them.
7; For I solemnly warned your fathers in the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, to this day rising early and warning, saying, Obey My voice.
8; Yet they did not obey nor stretch out their ear, but each one walked in the stubbornness of their evil heart. And I will bring on them all the Words of this covenant which I commanded them to do, but they did not do.
9; And YAHWEH said to me, A plot is found among the men of Judah, and among those living in Jerusalem.
10; They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear My Words. And they went after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I cut with their fathers.
11; So YAHWEH says this: Behold, I will bring evil on them from which they shall not be able to escape. And though they cry to Me, I will not listen to them.
12; Then the cities of Judah and those living in Jerusalem shall go and cry to the gods to whom they burned incense. But they are not at all able to save them in the time of their trouble.
13; For according to the number of your cities were your Elohim, O Judah; yea, according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars to that shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal.
14; And you, do not pray for this people; and do not lift up a cry or prayer for them. For I will not hear in the time they cry to Me for their trouble.
15; What belongs to My beloved in My house, since she has committed her many evils? And has the Set-Apart flesh caused your evil to pass from you? How then do you exult?
16; YAHWEH called your name, a green olive tree, fair, with fine fruit. With the sound of a great roaring, He has set fire to it, and its branches are worthless.
17; And YAHWEH of Hosts, who planted you, has spoken evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah which they have done to themselves, to provoke Me to anger by burning incense to Baal.
18; And YAHWEH made me know. And I knew. Then You made me know their doings.
19; And I was like a docile lamb being brought to the slaughter; and I did not know that they had plotted schemes against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with its fruit; and let us cut him off from the land of the living so that his name may be remembered no more.
20; But, O YAHWEH of Hosts who judges with righteousness, who tries the reins and the heart, let me see Your vengeance on them. For to You I have laid open my cause.
21; For this reason, so says YAHWEH concerning the men of Anathoth who seek your life, saying, Do not prophesy in the name of YAHWEH, that you do not die by our hand.
22; So YAHWEH of Hosts says this: Behold, I will punish them. The young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine.
23; And there shall be no survivor of them, for I will bring evil on the men of Anathoth, even the year of their punishment.
Chapter 12
1; Righteous are You, O YAHWEH, when I might complain to You, yet let me speak with You of Your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are all those who deal treacherously at ease?
2; You planted them; yea, they take root, they grow, they even make fruit. You are near in their mouth, and far from their reins.
3; But You know me, O YAHWEH. You have seen me and tried my heart toward You. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and devote them to the day of slaughter.
4; Until when shall the land mourn, and the plant of every field wither from the evil of those who dwell in it? The beasts and the birds are swept away, because they said, He will not see our last end.
5; If you have run with footmen, and they wore you out, then how can you compete with the horses? And if you feel secure in the land of peace, then how will you do in the swelling of Jordan?
6; For even your brothers and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; even they have fully called after you. Do not believe them, though they speak good things to you.
7; I have forsaken My house; I have left My inheritance. I have given the beloved of My soul into the hand of her enemies.
8; My inheritance has become as a lion in the forest to Me; she gave out her voice against Me; on account of this I hated her.
9; My inheritance is like a speckled bird to Me; the birds all around are against her. Come, gather all the beasts of the field, bring them to devour.
10; Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard; they have trampled My portion under foot; they have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
11; One has made it desolate; it mourns to Me. The whole land is a desolation, but no man lays it to heart.
12; The ravagers have come on all bare heights through the wilderness, for the sword of YAHWEH devours from one end of the land even to the other end of the land. There is no peace for any flesh.
13; They have sown wheat, but they have reaped thorns. They are worn out, but they do not profit. And they shall be ashamed of your harvests, because of the glow of the anger of YAHWEH.
14; So says YAHWEH against all My evil neighbors who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Israel to inherit: Behold, I will tear them from their land, and I will tear the house of Judah from among them.
15; And it shall be, after I have torn them out, I will return and have pity on them and will bring them again, each man to his inheritance and each man to his land.
16; And it shall be, if they will diligently learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, As YAHWEH lives, as they taught My people to swear by Baal, then they will be built in the midst of My people.
17; But if they will not obey, then I will tear out that nation, I will tear destroy it says YAHWEH.
Chapter 13
1; So says YAHWEHto me, Go and buy for yourself a linen girdle, and put it on your loins, and do not put it in water.
2; So I bought a girdle according to the Word of YAHWEH and put it on my loins.
3; And the Word of YAHWEH came to me a second time, saying,
4; Take the girdle that you bought, which is on your loins, and rise up. Go to Euphrates and hide it there in the cleft of the rock.
5; So I went and hid it by Euphrates, as YAHWEH commanded me.
6; And it happened at the end of many days, YAHWEH said to me, Rise up, go to Euphrates and take the girdle from there, which I commanded you to hide there.
7; And I went to Euphrates and dug, and I took the girdle from the place, there where I had hidden it. And behold, the girdle was rotted! It was not useful for anything.
8; Then the Word of YAHWEH came to me, saying,
9; So says YAHWEH, So I will spoil the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.
10; This evil people who refuse to hear My Words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them and to worship them, shall even be like this girdle which is not useful for anything.
11; For as this girdle holds fast to the loins of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me, says YAHWEH, to be to Me for a people, and for a name, and for praise, and for glory; but they would not listen.
12; So you will speak to them this Word: So says YAHWEH, Elohim of Israel, Every skin shall be filled with wine. And they shall say to you, Do we not know full well that every skin shall be filled with wine?
13; Then you shall say to them, So says YAHWEH, Behold, I will fill all those living in this land, even the kings that sit on David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all those living in Jerusalem, with drunkenness.
14; And I will smash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, declares YAHWEH; I will not pity nor spare nor have compassion, to keep them from their destruction.
15; Hear and give ear; do not be proud, for YAHWEH has spoken.
16; Give glory to YAHWEH your Elohim before He brings darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains. Yea, while you look for light, He puts it into the shadow of death, setting up deep darkness.
17; But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride. And my eye shall bitterly weep and run down with tears, because the flock of YAHWEH was captured.
18; Say to the king and to the queen mother, Humble yourselves, sit down. For the crown of your glory will come down from your head places.
19; The cities of the south have been shut up, and none are opening. Judah has been exiled; all of it has been peacefully exiled.
20; Lift up your eyes and see those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you, your beautiful flock?
21; What will you say when He visits you? For you taught them to be rulers over you for a head. Will not birth pangs seize you like a woman bearing?
22; And if you say in your heart, Why do these things come upon me? It is because of the greatness of your iniquity. Your skirts are bared; your heels suffer violence.
23; Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also may you do good who are accustomed to doing evil?
24; And I will scatter them as the stubble that passes away to the wilderness wind.
25; This is your lot, the share of your measure from Me, declares YAHWEH, because you have forgotten Me and have trusted in falsehood.
26; So I also have stripped off your skirts over your face, that your shame may appear.
27; I have seen your adulteries and your whinnying, the plot of your infidelity, your abominations on the hills, in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! Will you not be made clean? Until when will it still be?