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Jeremiah 6
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Chapter 6
More about the invasion
1
“Save yourselves, men of Benjamin, from the heart of Jerusalem! Sound the trumpet in Tekoa![*a] Set up a standard on Beth-hac-cherem! For disaster threatens from the North, an immense calamity.
2
Shall we compare the daughter of Zion to a tender pasture?
3
Shepherds advance on her with their flocks. They have pitched their tents all round her, each grazes the part he chooses.
4
Prepare for battle against her! To arms! We will launch the attack in broad daylight. Despair! The daylight is fading already, the evening shadows lengthen.
5
To arms! We will launch the attack under cover of dark and destroy her palaces.
6
For thus says Yahweh Sabaoth: Cut down the trees, throw up an earthwork outside Jerusalem: she is the City of Falsehood, with nothing but oppression in her.
7
As a well keeps its water fresh so she keeps her wickedness fresh. Violence and ruin are what you hear in her, diseases and wounds are always before me.
8
Be warned, Jerusalem, lest I should turn away from you, and reduce you to a desert, a land without people.
9
“Yahweh Sabaoth says this: Glean, glean, as a vine is gleaned, what is left of Israel; like a grape-picker pass your hand again over the branches!”‘
10
To whom am I to speak, whom can I urge to hear? Plainly their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen. Plainly the word of Yahweh is for them something contemptible, they have no taste for it.
11
But I am full of the wrath of Yahweh, I am weary of holding it in. ‘Then pour it on the children in the streets, and where young men gather, too. All shall be taken: husband and wife, the greybeard and the man weighed down with years.
12
Their houses shall pass to other men, so also their fields and their wives. Yes, I will stretch my hand over those living in this land – it is Yahweh who speaks.
13
For all, least no less than greatest, all are out for dishonest gain; prophet no less than priest, all practise fraud.
14
They dress my people’s wound without concern: “Peace! Peace!” they say, but there is no peace.
15
They should be ashamed of their abominable deeds But not they! They feel no shame, they have forgotten how to blush. And so as others fall, they too shall fall; they shall be thrown down when I come to deal with them – says Yahweh.
16
‘Yahweh says this: Put yourselves on the ways of long ago enquire about the ancient paths: which was the good way? Take it then, and you shall find rest. Instead they have said, “We will not take it”.
17
I posted look-outs on their behalf: Listen to the sound of the trumpet! But they answered, “We will not listen”.
18
Then hear, you nations, and know, assembly, what I will do to them.
19
Hear, earth! I am bringing a disaster on this people: it is the fruit of their apostasy, since they have not listened to my words and, as for my Law, they have rejected that.
20
What do I care about incense imported from Sheba, or fragrant cane from a distant country? Your holocausts are not acceptable, your sacrifices do not please me.
21
Therefore – thus says Yahweh: In front of this people I will now lay blocks for them to stumble over; father as well as son, neighbour and friend, all shall perish.
22
‘Yahweh says this: Now a people is coming from the land of the North, from the far ends of the earth a mighty nation stirs:
23
they are armed with bow and spear, they are cruel and pitiless; their noise is like the roaring of the sea; they are riding horses, each man equipped for war on you, daughter of Zion!
24
We have heard the news, our hands fall limp, anguish has gripped us, pain like a woman’s labour.
25
Do not go out into the countryside, do not venture on the roads, for the enemy’s sword is there, there is terror on every side.
26
Wrap yourself in sackcloth, daughter of my people, roll in ashes; mourn as for an only son, a very bitter dirge. For on us suddenly the destroyer is coming.
27
‘I have appointed you as assayer of my people, to learn and to assay how they behave.
28
They are apostates, all of them, promiscuous slanderers, all of them corrupt.
29
The bellows blast away to make the fire burn away the lead. In vain: the smelter does his work, but the dross is not purged out.
30
Silver-reject, men call them, and indeed Yahweh has rejected them!’
Chapters of Jeremiah
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
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