Jeremiah 4:5-Jeremiah 6:30 - An Invasion From The North
5 Declare in Judah, proclaim in Jerusalem, and say:
Cry out loudly and say:
Assemble yourselves,
and let’s flee to the fortified cities.
Run for cover! Don’t stand still!
For I am bringing disaster from the north—
a great destruction.
a destroyer of nations has set out.
He has left his lair
to make your land a waste.
Your cities will be reduced to uninhabited ruins.
mourn and wail,
for the Lord’s burning anger
has not turned away from us.
9 “On that day”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“the king and the officials will lose their courage. The priests will tremble in fear, and the prophets will be scared speechless.”
10 I said, “Oh no, Lord God, You have certainly deceived
11 “At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, ‘A searing wind
13
his chariots are like a storm.
His horses are swifter than eagles.
Woe to us, for we are ruined!
so that you will be delivered.
How long will you harbor
malicious thoughts within you?
proclaiming malice from Mount Ephraim.
Proclaim to Jerusalem:
Those who besiege are coming
from a distant land;
they raise their voices
against the cities of Judah.
like those who guard a field,
because she has rebelled against Me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
have brought this on you.
This is your punishment. It is very bitter,
because it has reached your heart!
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Oh, the pain in
My heart pounds;
I cannot be silent.
For you, my soul,
have heard the sound of the ram’s horn—
the shout of battle.
because the whole land is destroyed.
Suddenly my tents are destroyed,
my tent curtains, in a moment.
and hear the sound of the ram’s horn?
22
they do not know Me.
They are foolish children,
without understanding.
They are skilled in doing what is evil,
but they do not know how to do what is good.”
23
and it was formless and empty.
I looked to the heavens,
and their light was gone.
and they were quaking;
all the hills shook.
all the birds of the sky had fled.
All its cities were torn down
because of the Lord
and His burning anger.
27 For this is what the Lord says:
but I will not finish it off.
the skies above will grow dark.
I have spoken; I have planned,
and I will not relent or turn back from it.
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at the sound of the horseman and the archer.
They enter the thickets
and climb among the rocks.
Every city is abandoned;
no inhabitant is left.
that you dress yourself in scarlet,
that you adorn yourself with gold jewelry,
that you enlarge your eyes with paint?
You beautify yourself for nothing.
Your lovers reject you;
they want to take your life.
a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child.
The cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath,
stretching out her hands:
Woe is me, for my life is weary
because of the murderers!
1
Look and take note;
search in her squares.
If you find one person,
any who acts justly,
who seeks to be faithful,
then I will forgive her.
they are swearing falsely.
You have struck them, but they felt no pain.
You finished them off,
but they refused to accept discipline.
They made their faces harder than rock,
and they refused to return.
4 Then I thought:
they have played the fool.
For they don’t understand the way of the Lord,
the justice of their God.
and speak to them.
Surely they know the way of the Lord,
the justice of their God.
However, these also had broken the yoke
and torn off the chains.
A wolf from an arid plain will ravage them.
A leopard
Anyone who leaves them will be torn to pieces
because their rebellious acts are many,
their unfaithful deeds numerous.
7
Your children have abandoned Me
and sworn by those who are not gods.
I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery;
they gashed themselves
each neighing
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Should I not avenge Myself
on such a nation as this?
10
but do not finish them off.
Prune away her shoots,
for they do not belong to the Lord.
have dealt very treacherously with Me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
and insisted, “It won’t happen.
Harm won’t come to us;
we won’t see sword or famine.”
for the Lord’s word is not in them.
This will in fact happen to them.
14 Therefore, this is what the Lord God of Hosts says:
I am going to make My words
become fire in your mouth.
These people are the wood,
and the fire will consume them.
from far away against you,
house of Israel.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
It is an established nation,
an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know
and whose speech you do not understand.
they are all mighty warriors.
They will consume your sons and your daughters.
They will consume your flocks and your herds.
They will consume your vines and your fig trees.
They will destroy with the sword
your fortified cities
18 “But even in those days”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“I will not finish you off.
21
you foolish and senseless
They have eyes, but they don’t see.
They have ears, but they don’t hear.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Do you not tremble before Me,
the One who set the sand as the boundary of the sea,
an enduring barrier that it cannot cross?
The waves surge, but they cannot prevail.
They roar but cannot pass over it.
They have turned aside and have gone away.
‘Let’s fear the Lord our God,
who gives the rain,
who guarantees to us the fixed weeks of the harvest.’
Your sins have withheld My bounty from you,
They watch like fowlers lying in wait.
They set a trap;
they catch men.
so their houses are full of deceit.
Therefore they have grown powerful and rich.
They have also excelled in evil matters.
They have not taken up cases,
such as the case of the fatherless, so they might prosper,
and they have not defended the rights of the needy.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Should I not avenge Myself
on such a nation as this?
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has taken place in the land.
and the priests rule by their own authority.
My people love it like this.
But what will you do at the end of it?
1
out of Jerusalem!
Sound the ram’s horn
raise a smoke signal
for disaster threatens from the north,
even great destruction.
I will destroy
they will pitch their tents all around her.
Each will pasture his own portion.
rise up, let’s attack at noon.
Woe to us, for the day is passing;
the evening shadows grow long.
Let us destroy her fortresses.”
6 For this is what the Lord of Hosts says:
raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem.
This city must be punished.
There is nothing but oppression within her.
so she pours out her evil.
Violence and destruction
Sickness and wounds keep coming to My attention.
or I will turn away from you;
I will make you a desolation,
a land without inhabitants.
9 This is what the Lord of Hosts says:
as thoroughly as a vine.
Pass your hand once more like a grape gatherer
over the branches.
10
that they will listen?
Look, their ear is uncircumcised,
so they cannot pay attention.
See, the word of the Lord has become contemptible to them—
they find no pleasure in it.
I am tired of holding it back.
Pour it out on the children in the street,
on the gang of young men as well.
For both husband and wife will be captured,
the old with the very old.
their fields and wives as well,
for I will stretch out My hand
against the inhabitants of the land.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
13
everyone is making profit dishonestly.
From prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
claiming, “Peace, peace,”
when there is no peace.
They weren’t at all ashamed.
They can no longer feel humiliation.
Therefore, they will fall among the fallen.
When I punish them, they will collapse,
says the Lord.
16 This is what the Lord says:
Ask about the ancient paths:
Which is the way to what is good?
Then take it
and find rest for yourselves.
But they protested, “We won’t!”
and said: Listen for the sound of the ram’s horn.
But they protested, “We won’t listen!”
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and you witnesses,
learn what the charge is against them.
I am about to bring disaster on these people,
the fruit of their own plotting,
for they have paid no attention to My word.
They have rejected My instruction.
or sweet cane
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable;
your sacrifices do not please Me.
I am going to place stumbling blocks before these people;
fathers and sons together will stumble over them;
friends and neighbors will also perish.
22 This is what the Lord says:
a great nation will be awakened
from the remote regions of the earth.
They are cruel and show no mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea,
and they ride on horses,
lined up like men in battle formation
against you, Daughter Zion.
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and we are discouraged.
Distress has seized us—
pain like a woman in
don’t walk on the road.
For the enemy has a sword;
terror is on every side.
and roll in the dust.
Mourn as you would for an only son,
a bitter lament,
for suddenly the destroyer
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a refiner
so you may know and assay their way of life.
spreading slander.
They are bronze and iron;
all of them are corrupt.
blasting the lead with fire.
The refining is completely in vain;
the evil ones are not separated out.
for the Lord has rejected them.