Shared Word Translation
Jeremiah 4
“If you return, Israel,” declares the LORD,
“if you return to me,
and if you remove your detestable things from before me
and do not wander,
if you swear, ‘As the LORD lives,’
in faithfulness, justice, and righteousness,
then nations will bless themselves in him,
and in him they will boast.”
For thus says the LORD
to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem:
“Break up for yourselves unplowed ground;
do not sow among thorns.
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD;
remove the foreskins of your hearts,
people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
lest my wrath go out like fire
and burn with no one to quench it,
because of the evil of your deeds.”
Declare in Judah,
and proclaim in Jerusalem;
say, “Sound the ram’s horn in the land!”
Cry aloud and say,
“Gather yourselves,
and let us go into the fortified cities!”
Raise a signal toward Zion.
Flee for safety; do not stand still,
for I am bringing disaster from the north,
and great destruction.
A lion has risen from its thicket;
a destroyer of nations has set out.
It has gone from its place
to make your land a wasteland.
Your cities will be ruined,
without inhabitant.
For this, put on sackcloth;
mourn and wail,
for the burning anger of the LORD
has not turned away from us.
“And it will happen on that day,” declares the LORD,
“that the heart of the king will fail,
and the heart of the officials;
the priests will be appalled,
and the prophets astonished.”
Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD!
Surely you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem,
saying, ‘You will have peace,’
while the sword reaches to the very life.”
At that time it will be said
to this people and to Jerusalem:
“A scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness
comes toward the daughter of my people,
not for winnowing
and not for cleansing.
A wind too full for these will come at my command.
Now I too will speak judgments against them.”
Look, he comes up like clouds;
his chariots are like a storm wind.
His horses are swifter than eagles.
Woe to us,
for we are devastated!
Wash evil from your heart, Jerusalem,
so that you may be saved.
How long will thoughts of wickedness
lodge within you?
For a voice declares from Dan
and announces disaster from the hill country of Ephraim.
Warn the nations:
“Look! Proclaim against Jerusalem:
besiegers are coming from a distant land.
They raise their voices
against the cities of Judah.
Like guards around a field
they are against her on every side,
for she has rebelled against me,”
declares the LORD.
Your way and your deeds
have brought this upon you.
This is your evil: how bitter it is,
how it reaches to your heart!
My inward parts, my inward parts! I writhe!
The walls of my heart!
My heart roars within me.
I cannot be silent,
for I have heard the sound of the ram’s horn,
the alarm of war.
Crash upon crash is proclaimed,
for all the land is devastated.
Suddenly my tents are devastated,
in an instant my tent curtains.
How long must I see the signal,
must I hear the sound of the ram’s horn?
“For my people are foolish;
they do not know me.
They are foolish children,
and they have no understanding.
They are wise in doing evil,
but they do not know how to do good.”
I looked at the earth—
and look: waste and emptiness;
and to the heavens—
and they had no light.
I looked at the mountains—
and look: they were shaking;
all the hills
were swaying.
I looked—
and look: there was no human being,
and every bird of the heavens
had fled.
I looked—
and look: the fertile land was a wilderness,
and all its cities were torn down
before the LORD,
before his burning anger.
For thus says the LORD:
“The whole land will become a desolation,
yet I will not make a full end.
Because of this the earth will mourn,
and the heavens above will grow dark;
for I have spoken, I have purposed.
I have not relented,
and I will not turn back from it.”
At the sound of horseman and archer
every city flees.
They enter the thickets
and climb among the rocks.
Every city is abandoned,
and no one lives in them.
And you, devastated one, what will you do?
Though you dress in scarlet,
though you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,
though you enlarge your eyes with antimony,
in vain you make yourself beautiful.
Your lovers reject you;
they seek your life.
For I hear a voice like that of a woman in labor,
distress like that of one giving birth to her first child—
the voice of Daughter Zion,
gasping for breath, spreading out her hands:
“Woe is me!
For my life grows faint
before killers.”