Jeremiah 6 Cross References - YLT

¹ Strengthen yourselves, sons of Benjamin, From the midst of Jerusalem, And in Tekoa blow ye a trumpet, And over Beth-Haccerem lift ye up a flame, For evil hath been seen from the north, And great destruction. ² The comely and the delicate one I have cut off, The daughter of Zion. ³ Unto her come do shepherds and their droves, They have stricken tents by her round about, They have fed each in his own station. ⁴ Sanctify ye against her the battle, Rise, and we go up at noon. Woe to us, for turned hath the day, For stretched out are the shades of evening, ⁵ `Rise, and we go up by night, And we destroy her palaces.' <sup>6</sup> For thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Cut down her wood, And pour out against Jerusalem a mount, She is the city to be inspected, Wholly—she is oppression in her midst. <sup>7</sup> As the digging of a well, is for its waters, So she hath digged for her wickedness, Violence and spoil is heard in her, Before My face continually are sickness and smiting. <sup>8</sup> Be instructed, O Jerusalem, Lest My soul be alienated from thee, Lest I make thee a desolation, a land not inhabited.
<sup>9</sup> Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: They surely glean, as a vine, the remnant of Israel, Put back thy hand, as a gatherer to the baskets. <sup>10</sup> To whom do I speak, and testify, and they hear? Lo, their ear is uncircumcised, And they are not able to attend. Lo, a word of Jehovah hath been to them for a reproach, They delight not in it. <sup>11</sup> And with the fury of Jehovah I have been filled, (I have been weary of containing,) To pour it on the suckling in the street, And on the assembly of youths together, For even husband with wife are captured, An elder with one full of days, <sup>12</sup> And their houses have been turned to others, Fields and wives together, For I stretch out My hand against the inhabitants of the land, An affirmation of Jehovah. <sup>13</sup> For from their least unto their greatest, Every one is gaining dishonest gain, And from prophet even unto priest, Every one is dealing falsely, <sup>14</sup> And they heal the breach of the daughter of my people slightly, Saying, `Peace, peace!' and there is no peace. ¹⁵ They were ashamed when they did abomination! Yea, they are not at all ashamed, Yea, blushing they have not known, Therefore they do fall among those falling, In the time I have inspected them, They stumble, said Jehovah. ¹⁶ Thus said Jehovah: Stand ye by the ways and see, and ask for paths of old, Where is this—the good way? and go ye in it, And find rest for yourselves. And they say, `We do not go.' <sup>17</sup> And I have raised up for you watchmen, Attend ye to the voice of the trumpet. And they say, `We do not attend.'
¹⁸ Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O company, That which is upon them. ¹⁹ Hear, O earth, lo, I am bringing evil on this people, The fruit of their devices, For to My words they gave no attention, And My law—they kick against it. ²⁰ Why is this to Me? frankincense from Sheba cometh, And the sweet cane from a land afar off, Your burnt-offerings are not for acceptance, And your sacrifices have not been sweet to Me. ²¹ Therefore thus said Jehovah: Lo, I do give to this people stumbling blocks, And stumbled against them have fathers and sons together, The neighbour and his friend do perish. ²² Thus said Jehovah: Lo, a people hath come from a north country, And a great nation is stirred up from the sides of the earth. ²³ Bow and javelin they take hold of, Fierce it is, and they have no mercy, Their voice as a sea doth sound, And on horses they ride, set in array as a man of war, Against thee, O daughter of Zion. ²⁴ `We have heard its sound, feeble have been our hands, Distress hath seized us, pain as of a travailing woman. <sup>25</sup> Go not forth to the field, And in the way walk not, For a sword hath the enemy, fear is round about. <sup>26</sup> O daughter of My people, Gird on sackcloth, and roll thyself in ashes, The mourning of an only one make for thee, A lamentation most bitter, For suddenly come doth the spoiler against us. <sup>27</sup> A watch-tower I have given thee, Among My people a fortress, And thou knowest, and hast tried their way. <sup>28</sup> All of them are turned aside by apostates, Walking slanderously—brass and iron, All of them are corrupters. <sup>29</sup> The bellows have been burnt, By fire hath the lead been consumed, In vain hath a refiner refined, And the wicked have not been drawn away. <sup>30</sup> `Silver rejected,' they have called to them, For Jehovah hath kicked against them!

⁶³ As to the Jebusites, inhabitants of Jerusalem, the sons of Judah have not been able to dispossess them, and the Jebusite dwelleth with the sons of Judah in Jerusalem unto this day.

²¹ And the cities for the tribe of the sons of Benjamin, for their families, have been Jericho, and Beth-Hoglah, and the valley of Keziz, ²² and Beth-Arabah, Zemaraim, and Beth-El, ²³ and Avim, and Parah, and Ophrah, ²⁴ and Chephar-Haammonai, and Ophni, and Gaba; twelve cities and their villages. ²⁵ Gibeon, and Ramah, and Beeroth, ²⁶ and Mizpeh, and Chephirah, and Mozah, ²⁷ and Rekem, and Irpeel, and Taralah, ²⁸ and Zelah, Eleph, and Jebusi (it is Jerusalem), Gibeath, Kirjath: fourteen cities and their villages. This is the inheritance of the sons of Benjamin, for their families.

²¹ And the Jebusite, inhabiting Jerusalem, the sons of Benjamin have not dispossessed; and the Jebusite dwelleth with the sons of Benjamin, in Jerusalem, till this day.

² and Joab sendeth to Tekoah, and taketh thence a wise woman, and saith unto her, `Feign thyself a mourner, I pray thee, and put on, I pray thee, garments of mourning, and anoint not thyself with oil, and thou hast been as a woman these many days mourning for the dead,

⁶ yea, he buildeth Beth-Lehem and Etam, and Tekoa,

¹⁴ And the dung-gate hath Malchijah son of Rechab, head of the district of Beth-Haccerem, strengthened; he doth built it, and set up its doors, its locks, and its bars.

¹⁴ And Jehovah saith unto me, `From the north is the evil loosed against all inhabitants of the land. ¹⁵ For, lo, I am calling for all families of the kingdoms of the north, —an affirmation of Jehovah—and they have come, and put each his throne at the opening of the gates of Jerusalem, and by its walls round about, and by all cities of Judah.

⁵ Declare in Judah, and in Jerusalem sound, And say ye, `Blow a trumpet in the land,' Call ye fully, and say ye: `Be gathered, and we go in to the fenced city.' ⁶ Lift up an ensign Zionward, Strengthen yourselves, stand not still, For evil I am bringing in from the north, And a great destruction.

¹⁹ My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at the walls of my heart, Make a noise for me doth My heart, I am not silent, For the voice of a trumpet I have heard, O my soul—a shout of battle! ²⁰ Destruction on destruction is proclaimed, For spoiled hath been all the land, Suddenly spoiled have been my tents, In a moment—my curtains.

²⁹ From the voice of the horseman, And of him shooting with the bow, all the city is fleeing, They have come into thickets, And on cliffs they have gone up, All the city is forsaken, And there is no one dwelling in them.

²² Thus said Jehovah: Lo, a people hath come from a north country, And a great nation is stirred up from the sides of the earth.

¹⁷ Gather from the land thy merchandise, O dweller in the bulwark, ¹⁸ For thus said Jehovah: Lo, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land at this time, And have been an adversary to them, So that they are found out.

²² A voice of a report, lo, it hath come, Even a great shaking from the north country, To make the cities of Judah a desolation, A habitation of dragons.

⁹ Lo, I am sending, and have taken all the families of the north—an affirmation of Jehovah—even unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and have brought them in against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations round about, and have devoted them, and appointed them for an astonishment, and for a hissing, and for wastes age-during.

⁷ For, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I am bringing in unto Tyre Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, From the north—a king of kings, With horse, and with chariot, and with horsemen, Even an assembly, and a numerous people. ⁸ Thy daughters in the field by sword he slayeth, And he hath made against thee a fort, And hath poured out against thee a mount, And hath raised against thee a buckler. ⁹ And a battering-ram before him he placeth against thy walls, And thy towers he breaketh by his weapons. ¹⁰ From the abundance of his horses cover thee doth their dust, From the noise of horseman, and wheel, and rider, Shake do thy walls, in his coming in to thy gates, As the coming into a city broken-up. ¹¹ With hoofs of his horses he treadeth all thine out-places, Thy people by sword he doth slay, And the pillars of thy strength to the earth come down. ¹² And they have spoiled thy wealth, And they have plundered thy merchandise, And they have thrown down thy walls, And thy desirable houses they break down, And thy stones, and thy wood, and thy dust, In the midst of the waters they place. ¹³ And I have caused the noise of thy songs to cease, And the voice of thy harps is heard no more. ¹⁴ And I have given thee up for a clear place of a rock, A spreading-place of nets thou art, Thou art not built up any more, For I, Jehovah, I have spoken, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.
¹⁵ Thus said the Lord Jehovah to Tyre: Do not—from the noise of thy fall, In the groaning of the wounded, In the slaying of the slaughter in thy midst, The isles shake? ¹⁶ And come down from off their thrones have all princes of the sea, And they have turned aside their robes, And their embroidered garments strip off, Trembling they put on, on the earth they sit, And they have trembled every moment, And they have been astonished at thee, ¹⁷ And have lifted up for thee a lamentation, And said to thee: How hast thou perished, That art inhabited from the seas, The praised city, that was strong in the sea, She and her inhabitants, Who put their terror on all her inhabitants! ¹⁸ Now they tremble, is it not the day of thy fall? Troubled have been the isles that are in the sea, at thine outgoing. ¹⁹ For thus said the Lord Jehovah: In my making thee a city wasted, Like cities that have not been inhabited, In bringing up against thee the deep, Then covered thee have the great waters. ²⁰ And I have caused thee to go down, With those going down to the pit, Unto the people of old, And I have caused thee to dwell in the land, The lower parts—in wastes of old, With those going down to the pit, So that thou art not inhabited, And I have given beauty in the land of the living. ²¹ Wastes I do make thee, and thou art not, And thou art sought, and art not found any more—to the age, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah!'

¹ Words of Amos—who hath been among herdsmen of Tekoa—that he hath seen concerning Israel, in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the shaking;

⁸ And left hath been the daughter of Zion, As a booth in a vineyard, As a lodge in a place of cucumbers—as a city besieged.

¹⁶ `Because that daughters of Zion have been haughty, And they walk stretching out the neck, And deceiving with the eyes, Walking and mincing they go, And with their feet they make a tinkling, ¹⁷ The Lord also hath scabbed The crown of the head of daughters of Zion, And Jehovah their simplicity exposeth.

³¹ For a voice as of a sick woman I have heard, Distress, as of one bringing forth a first-born, The voice of the daughter of Zion, She bewaileth herself, she spreadeth out her hands, `Woe to me now, for weary is my soul of slayers!'

¹ How doth the Lord cloud in His anger the daughter of Zion, He hath cast from heaven to earth the beauty of Israel, And hath not remembered His footstool in the day of His anger.

¹³ What do I testify to thee, what do I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What do I equal to thee, and I comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For great as a sea is thy breach, Who doth give healing to thee?

² and Jehovah sendeth against him the troops of the Chaldeans, and the troops of Aram, and the troops of Moab, and the troops of the sons of Ammon, and He sendeth them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Jehovah, that He spake by the hand of His servants the prophets;

¹⁰ At that time come up have servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Jerusalem, and the city goeth into siege, ¹¹ and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon cometh against the city, and his servants are laying siege to it, ¹² and Jehoiachin king of Judah goeth out unto the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his chiefs, and his eunuchs, and the king of Babylon taketh him in the eighth year of his reign,

¹ And it cometh to pass, in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth of the month, come hath Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, he and all his force, against Jerusalem, and encampeth against it, and buildeth against it a fortification round about. ² And the city entereth into siege till the eleventh year of king Zedekiah, ³ on the ninth of the month—when the famine is severe in the city, and there hath not been bread for the people of the land, ⁴ then the city is broken up, and all the men of war go by night the way of the gate, between the two walls that are by the garden of the king, and the Chaldeans are against the city round about, and the king goeth the way of the plain.

¹⁶ Make ye mention to the nations, Lo, sound ye to Jerusalem: `Besiegers are coming from the land afar off, And they give forth against cities of Judah their voice. ¹⁷ As the keepers of a field They have been against her round about, For with Me she hath been rebellious, An affirmation of Jehovah.'

¹⁰ Many shepherds did destroy My vineyard, They have trodden down My portion, They have made My desirable portion Become a wilderness—a desolation.

¹ In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, come hath Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his force unto Jerusalem, and they lay siege against it; ² in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, in the ninth of the month, hath the city been broken up; ³ and come in do all the heads of the king of Babylon, and they sit at the middle gate, Nergal-Sharezer, Samgar-Nebo, Sarsechim, chief of the eunuchs, Nergal-Sharezer, chief of the Mages, and all the rest of the heads of the king of Babylon.

¹⁸ Slumbered have thy friends, king of Asshur, Rest do thine honourable ones, Scattered have been thy people on the mountains, And there is none gathering.

⁴³ `Because days shall come upon thee, and thine enemies shall cast around thee a rampart, and compass thee round, and press thee on every side,

¹⁷ Till the day doth break forth, And the shadows have fled away, Turn, be like, my beloved, To a roe, or to a young one of the harts, On the mountains of separation!

²⁶ And He lifted up an ensign to nations afar off, And hissed to it from the end of the earth, And lo, with haste, swift it cometh. ²⁷ There is none weary, nor stumbling in it, It doth not slumber, nor sleep, Nor opened hath been the girdle of its loins, Nor drawn away the latchet of its sandals. ²⁸ Whose arrows are sharp, and all its bows bent, Hoofs of its horses as flint have been reckoned, And its wheels as a hurricane! ²⁹ Its roaring is like a lioness, It roareth like young lions, And it howleth, and seizeth prey, And carrieth away safely, and there is none delivering. ³⁰ And it howleth against it in that day as the howling of a sea, And it hath looked attentively to the land, And lo, darkness—distress, And light hath been darkened by its abundance!

² `On a high mountain lift ye up an ensign, Raise the voice to them, wave the hand, And they go in to the openings of nobles. ³ I have given charge to My sanctified ones, Also I have called My mighty ones for Mine anger, Those rejoicing at Mine excellency.' ⁴ A voice of a multitude in the mountains, A likeness of a numerous people, A voice of noise from the kingdoms of nations who are gathered, Jehovah of Hosts inspecting a host of battle! ⁵ They are coming in from a land afar off, From the end of the heavens, Jehovah and the instruments of His indignation, To destroy all the land.

¹⁰ Go ye up on her walls, and destroy, And a completion make not, Turn aside her branches, for they are not Jehovah's,

²⁰ Harvest hath passed, summer hath ended, And we—we have not been saved.

⁸ Its widows have been more to Me than the sand of the seas, I brought in to them—against the mother—A young man—a spoiler—at noon. I caused to fall upon her suddenly, wrath and trouble.

²⁷ Lift ye up an ensign in the land, Blow a trumpet among nations, Sanctify against it nations, Summon against it the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz, Appoint against it an infant head, Cause the horse to ascend as the rough cankerworm. ²⁸ Sanctify against it the nations with the kings of Media, Its governors and all its prefects, And all the land of its dominion.

⁹ Proclaim ye this among nations, Sanctify a war, stir up the mighty ones, Come nigh, come up, let all the men of war.

⁴ For Gaza is forsaken, And Ashkelon is for a desolation, Ashdod! at noon they do cast her forth, And Ekron is rooted up.

¹⁹ And they burn the house of God, and break down the wall of Jerusalem, and all its palaces they have burnt with fire, and all its desirable vessels—to destruction.

³ God in her high places is known for a tower.

¹⁴ Surely the palace hath been left, The multitude of the city forsaken, Fort and watch-tower hath been for dens unto the age, A joy of wild asses—a pasture of herds;

²¹ For death hath come up into our windows, It hath come into our palaces, To cut off the suckling from without, Young men from the broad places.

²⁷ And if ye do not hearken unto me to sanctify the day of rest, And so as not to bear a burden, And to come in at the gates of Jerusalem on the day of rest, Then I have kindled a fire in its gates, And it hath consumed the high places of Jerusalem, And it is not quenched!'

¹³ and he burneth the house of Jehovah, and the house of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house he hath burned with fire,

¹⁴ And forget doth Israel his Maker, and buildeth temples, And Judah hath multiplied cities of defence, And I have sent a fire into his cities, And it hath consumed their palaces!

⁵ And I have sent a fire against Judah, And it hath consumed palaces of Jerusalem.

¹⁰ And they have not known to act straightforwardly, An affirmation of Jehovah, Who are treasuring up violence and spoil in their palaces. ¹¹ Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: An adversary—and surrounding the land, And he hath brought down from thee thy strength, And spoiled have been thy palaces.

¹ Open, O Lebanon, thy doors, And fire doth devour among thy cedars.

¹⁹ `When thou layest siege unto a city many days, to fight against it, to capture it, thou dost not destroy its trees to force an axe against them, for of them thou dost eat, and them thou dost not cut down—for man's is the tree of the field—to go in at thy presence in the siege. ²⁰ Only, the tree, which thou knowest that it is not a fruit-tree, it thou dost destroy, and hast cut down, and hast built a bulwark against the city which is making with thee war till thou hast subdued it.

²⁴ `Lo, the mounts—they have come in to the city to capture it, and the city hath been given into the hand of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it, because of the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence; and that which Thou hast spoken hath come to pass, and lo, Thou art seeing;

⁹ Swallow up, O Lord, divide their tongue, For I saw violence and strife in a city. ¹⁰ By day and by night they go round it, on its walls. Both iniquity and perverseness are in its midst, ¹¹ Mischiefs are in its midst. Fraud and deceit depart not from its street.

²³ Above every charge keep thy heart, For out of it are the outgoings of life.

²⁰ And the wicked are as the driven out sea, For to rest it is not able, And its waters cast out filth and mire.

⁸ Because from the time I speak I cry out, `Violence and destruction,' I cry, For the word of Jehovah hath been to me For reproach and for derision all the day.

¹¹ The violence hath risen to a rod of wickedness, There is none of them, nor of their multitude, Nor of their noise, nor is there wailing for them.

²³ Make the chain; for the land Hath been full of bloody judgments, And the city hath been full of violence.

³ and thou hast said: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: The city is shedding blood in its midst, For the coming in of its time, And it hath made idols on it for defilement. ⁴ By thy blood that thou hast shed thou hast been guilty, And by thine idols that thou hast made thou hast been defiled, And thou causest thy days to draw near, And art come in unto thine years, Therefore I have given thee a reproach to nations, And a derision to all the lands. ⁵ The near and the far-off from thee scoff at thee, O defiled of name—abounding in trouble. ⁶ Lo, princes of Israel—each according to his arm Have been in thee to shed blood. ⁷ Father and mother made light of in thee, To a sojourner they dealt oppressively in thy midst, Fatherless and widow they oppressed in thee. ⁸ My holy things thou hast despised, And My sabbaths thou hast polluted. ⁹ Men of slander have been in thee to shed blood, And on the mountains they have eaten in thee, Wickedness they have done in thy midst. ¹⁰ The nakedness of a father hath one uncovered in thee, The defiled of impurity they humbled in thee. ¹¹ And each with the wife of his neighbour hath done abomination, And each his daughter-in-law hath defiled through wickedness, And each his sister, his father's daughter, hath humbled in thee. ¹² A bribe they have taken in thee to shed blood, Usury and increase thou hast taken, And cuttest off thy neighbour by oppression, And Me thou hast forgotten, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah!

⁷ For her blood in her midst hath been, On a clear place of a rock she hath set it, She hath not poured it on the earth, To cover it over with dust.

¹ Woe to those devising iniquity, And working evil on their beds, In the light of the morning they do it, For their hand is—to God. ² And they have desired fields, And they have taken violently, And houses, and they have taken away, And have oppressed a man and his house, Even a man and his inheritance.

⁸ And yesterday My people for an enemy doth raise himself up, From the outer garment the honourable ornament ye strip off, From the confident passers by, Ye who are turning back from war. ⁹ The women of My people ye cast out from its delightful house, From its sucklings ye take away My honour to the age. ¹⁰ Rise and go, for this is not the rest, Because of uncleanness it doth corrupt, And corruption is powerful.

¹ And I say, `Hear, I pray you, heads of Jacob, And ye judges of the house of Israel, Is it not for you to know the judgment? ² Ye who are hating good, and loving evil, Taking violently their skin from off them, And their flesh from off their bones, ³ And who have eaten the flesh of My people, And their skin from off them have stript, And their bones they have broken, And they have spread them out as in a pot, And as flesh in the midst of a caldron.

⁹ Hear this, I pray you, heads of the house of Jacob, And ye judges of the house of Israel, Who are making judgment abominable, And all uprightness do pervert. ¹⁰ Building up Zion with blood, And Jerusalem with iniquity. ¹¹ Her heads for a bribe do judge, And her priests for hire do teach, And her prophets for silver divine, And on Jehovah they lean, saying, `Is not Jehovah in our midst? Evil doth not come in upon us.' ¹² Therefore, for your sake, Zion is ploughed a field, and Jerusalem is heaps, And the mount of the house is for high places of a forest!

² Perished hath the kind out of the land, And upright among men—there are none, All of them for blood lie in wait, Each his brother they hunt with a net. ³ On the evil are both hands to do it well, The prince is asking—also the judge—for recompence, And the great—he is speaking the mischief of his soul, And they wrap it up.

¹⁰ out of the same mouth doth come forth blessing and cursing; it doth not need, my brethren, these things so to happen; ¹¹ doth the fountain out of the same opening pour forth the sweet and the bitter? ¹² is a fig-tree able, my brethren, olives to make? or a vine figs? so no fountain salt and sweet water is able to make.

³⁴ `Then doth the land enjoy its sabbaths—all the days of the desolation, and ye in the land of your enemies—then doth the land rest, and hath enjoyed its sabbaths;

²⁹ If they were wise—They deal wisely with this; They attend to their latter end:

¹⁰ And now, O kings, act wisely, Be instructed, O judges of earth,

¹⁷ Yea, thou hast hated instruction, And dost cast My words behind thee.

¹² O the happiness of the man Whom Thou instructest, O Jah, And out of Thy law teachest him,

¹³ Lay hold on instruction, do not desist, Keep her, for she is thy life.

¹⁵ Against him roar do young lions, They have given forth their voice, And make his land become a desolation, His cities have been burnt without inhabitant.

¹⁴ Wash from evil thy heart, O Jerusalem, That thou mayest be saved, Till when dost thou lodge in thy heart Thoughts of thy strength?

³ Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel, Amend your ways, and your doings, And I cause you to dwell in this place. ⁴ Do not trust for yourselves Unto the words of falsehood, saying, The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, The temple of Jehovah are they! ⁵ For, if ye do thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, If ye do judgment thoroughly Between a man and his neighbour, ⁶ Sojourner, fatherless, and widow, ye oppress not, And innocent blood do not shed in this place, And after other gods do not walk, for evil to yourselves, ⁷ Then I have caused you to dwell in this place, In the land that I gave to your fathers, From age even unto age.

²⁰ Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah, Lo, Mine anger and My fury is poured out on this place, On man, and beast, and on tree of the field, And on fruit of the ground, And it hath burned, and it is not quenched.

³⁴ And I have caused to cease from cities of Judah, And from streets of Jerusalem, The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, Voice of bridegroom, and voice of bride, For the land doth become a desolation!

¹¹ And I make Jerusalem become heaps, A habitation of dragons, And the cities of Judah I make a desolation, Without inhabitant.

²³ And they have not hearkened nor inclined their ear, And they stiffen their neck not to hear, And not to receive instruction.

¹⁹ For after my turning back I repented, And after my being instructed I struck on the thigh, I have been ashamed, I have also blushed, For I have borne the reproach of my youth.

³³ And they turn unto Me the neck, and not the face, and teaching them, rising early and teaching, and they are not hearkening to accept instruction.

¹³ `Go, and thou hast said to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Do ye not receive instruction? —to hearken unto My words—an affirmation of Jehovah. ¹⁴ Performed have been the words of Jonadab son of Rechab, when he commanded his sons not to drink wine, and they have not drunk unto this day, for they have obeyed the command of their father; and I—I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking, and ye have not hearkened unto Me. ¹⁵ And I send unto you all My servants the prophets, rising early and sending, saying: Turn back, I pray you, each from his evil way, and amend your doings, yea, ye do not walk after other gods, to serve them, and dwell ye on the ground that I have given to you and to your fathers; and ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto Me.

¹⁸ And she revealeth her whoredoms, And she revealeth her nakedness, And alienated is My soul from off her, As alienated was My soul from off her sister.

¹² For though they nourish their sons, I have made them childless—without man, Surely also, woe to them, when I turn aside from them.

⁷ I have said: Only, ye do fear Me, Ye do accept instruction, And her habitation is not cut off, All that I have appointed for her, But they have risen early, They have corrupted all their doings.

⁸ And I cut off the three shepherds in one month, and my soul is grieved with them, and also their soul hath abhorred me. ⁹ And I say, `I do not feed you, the dying, let die; and the cut off, let be cut off; and the remaining ones, let each eat the flesh of its neighbour.'

¹⁶ Lo, I am sending for many fishers, An affirmation of Jehovah, And they have fished them, And after this I send for many hunters, And they have hunted them from off every mountain, And from off every hill, and from holes of the rocks.

⁹ If gatherers have come in to thee, They do not leave gleanings, If thieves in the night, They have destroyed their sufficiency!

²⁸ This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar hath removed: in the seventh year, of Jews, three thousand and twenty and three; ²⁹ in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar—from Jerusalem, souls, eight hundred thirty and two; ³⁰ in the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadrezzar, hath Nebuzar-Adan chief of the guard removed of Jewish souls, seven hundred forty and five; all the souls are four thousand and six hundred.

⁵ If thieves have come in to thee, If spoilers of the night, How hast thou been cut off! Do they not steal their sufficiency? If gatherers have come in to thee, Do they not leave gleanings? ⁶ How hath Esau been searched out! Flowed out have his hidden things,

¹⁸ and another messenger did come forth out from the altar, having authority over the fire, and he called with a great cry to him having the sharp sickle, saying, `Send forth thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, because come to perfection have her grapes;'

¹² and Moses speaketh before Jehovah, saying, `Lo, the sons of Israel have not hearkened unto me, and how doth Pharaoh hear me, and I of uncircumcised lips?'

⁴ and Jehovah hath not given to you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, till this day,

¹⁵ And Jehovah, God of their fathers, sendeth unto them by the hand of His messengers—rising early and sending—for He hath had pity on His people, and on His habitation, ¹⁶ and they are mocking at the messengers of God, and despising His words, and acting deceitfully with His prophets, till the going up of the fury of Jehovah against His people—till there is no healing.

² But—in the law of Jehovah is his delight, And in His law he doth meditate by day and by night:

⁸ To do Thy pleasure, my God, I have delighted, And Thy law is within my heart.

¹⁶ In Thy statutes I delight myself, I do not forget Thy word.

²⁴ Thy testimonies also are my delight, The men of my counsel!

³⁵ Cause me to tread in the path of Thy commands, For in it I have delighted.

⁷⁰ Insensate as fat hath been their heart, I—in Thy law I have delighted.

⁷⁷ Meet me do Thy mercies, and I live, For Thy law is my delight.

¹⁷⁴ I have longed for Thy salvation, O Jehovah, And Thy law is my delight.

⁹ And He saith, `Go, and thou hast said to this people, Hear ye—to hear, and ye do not understand, And see ye—to see, and ye do not know. ¹⁰ Declare fat the heart of this people, And its ears declare heavy, And its eyes declare dazzled, Lest it see with its eyes, And with its ears hear, and its heart consider, And it hath turned back, and hath health.'

⁹ By whom doth He teach knowledge? And by whom doth He cause to understand the report? The weaned from milk, the removed from breasts, ¹⁰ For rule is on rule, rule on rule, line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there, ¹¹ For by scorned lip, and by another tongue, Doth He speak unto this people. ¹² Unto whom He hath said, `This is the rest, give ye rest to the weary, And this—the refreshing:' And they have not been willing to hear, ¹³ And to whom a word of Jehovah hath been, Rule on rule, rule on rule, line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there, So that they go and have stumbled backward, And been broken, and snared, and captured.

²³ Who among you giveth ear to this? Attendeth, and heareth afterwards. ²⁴ Who hath given Jacob for a spoil, And Israel to the spoilers? Is it not Jehovah—He against whom we sinned? Yea, they have not been willing in His ways to walk, Nor have they hearkened to His law. ²⁵ And He poureth on him fury, His anger, and the strength of battle, And it setteth him on fire round about, And he hath not known, And it burneth against him, and he layeth it not to heart!

¹ Who hath given credence to that which we heard? And the arm of Jehovah, On whom hath it been revealed?

⁴ Be circumcised to Jehovah, And turn aside the foreskins of your heart, O man of Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, Lest My fury go out as fire, and hath burned, And there is none quenching, Because of the evil of your doings.

⁴ And I—I said, `Surely these are poor, They have been foolish, For they have not known the way of Jehovah, The judgment of their God. ⁵ I get me to the great, and I speak with them, For they have known the way of Jehovah, The judgment of their God.' Surely they together have broken the yoke, They have drawn away the bands.

²⁶ And they have not hearkened unto Me, Nor inclined their ear, and harden their neck, They have done evil above their fathers.

⁸ Because from the time I speak I cry out, `Violence and destruction,' I cry, For the word of Jehovah hath been to me For reproach and for derision all the day. <sup>9</sup> And I said, `I do not mention Him, Nor do I speak any more in His name,' And it hath been in my heart As a burning fire shut up in my bones, And I have been weary of containing, And I am not able.

¹⁸ In My saying to the wicked: Thou dost surely die; and thou hast not warned him, nor hast spoken to warn the wicked from his wicked way, so that he doth live; he—the wicked—in his iniquity dieth, and his blood from thy hand I require. ¹⁹ And thou, because thou hast warned the wicked, and he hath not turned back from his wickedness, and from his wicked way, he in his iniquity dieth, and thou thy soul hast delivered. ²⁰ `And in the turning back of the righteous from his righteousness, and he hath done perversity, and I have put a stumbling-block before him, he dieth; because thou hast not warned him, in his sin he dieth, and not remembered is his righteousness that he hath done, and his blood from thy hand I require. ²¹ And thou, because thou hast warned him—the righteous—that the righteous sin not, and he hath not sinned, he surely liveth, because he hath been warned; and thou thy soul hast delivered.'

³ And he hath seen the sword coming against the land, And hath blown with a trumpet, and hath warned the people,

⁹ And thou, when thou hast warned the wicked of his way, to turn back from it, And he hath not turned back from his way, He in his iniquity doth die, And thou thy soul hast delivered.

¹⁰ And Amaziah priest of Beth-El sendeth unto Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, `Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words,

⁷ And having seen many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming about his baptism, he said to them, `Brood of vipers! who did shew you to flee from the coming wrath?

⁴⁵ And one of the lawyers answering, saith to him, `Teacher, these things saying, us also thou dost insult;'

¹⁹ And the chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on him in that hour, and they feared the people, for they knew that against them he spake this simile.

⁷ the world is not able to hate you, but me it doth hate, because I testify concerning it that its works are evil.

⁴⁰ And those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and they said to him, `Are we also blind?'

⁵¹ `Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and in ears! ye do always the Holy Spirit resist; as your fathers—also ye;

⁶⁰ and having bowed the knees, he cried with a loud voice, `Lord, mayest thou not lay to them this sin;' and this having said, he fell asleep.

²² for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man,

²⁸ whom we proclaim, warning every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus,

³ for there shall be a season when the sound teaching they will not suffer, but according to their own desires to themselves they shall heap up teachers—itching in the hearing,

⁷ By faith Noah, having been divinely warned concerning the things not yet seen, having feared, did prepare an ark to the salvation of his house, through which he did condemn the world, and of the righteousness according to faith he became heir.

¹⁸ For I have been full of words, Distressed me hath the spirit of my breast, ¹⁹ Lo, my breast is as wine not opened, Like new bottles it is broken up.

²¹ Therefore, give up their sons to famine, And cause them to run on the sides of the sword, And their wives are bereaved and widows, And their men are slain by death, Their young men smitten by sword in battle,

⁹ And I said, `I do not mention Him, Nor do I speak any more in His name,' And it hath been in my heart As a burning fire shut up in my bones, And I have been weary of containing, And I am not able.

¹⁴ And a spirit hath lifted me up, and doth take me away, and I go bitterly, in the heat of my spirit, and the hand of Jehovah on me is strong.

⁶ aged, young man, and virgin, and infant, and women, ye do slay—to destruction; and against any man on whom is the mark ye do not go nigh, and from My sanctuary ye begin.'

⁸ And yet I have been full of power by the Spirit of Jehovah, And of judgment, and of might, To declare to Jacob his transgression, And to Israel his sin.

³⁴ `I say to you, In that night, there shall be two men on one couch, the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left;

²⁰ for we cannot but speak what we did see and hear.'

¹⁶ and Paul waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, beholding the city wholly given to idolatry,

⁵ And when both Silas and Timotheus came down from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the Spirit, testifying fully to the Jews Jesus the Christ;

¹ And I heard a great voice out of the sanctuary saying to the seven messengers, `Go away, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God to the earth;'

³⁰ `A woman thou dost betroth, and another man doth lie with her; a house thou dost build, and dost not dwell in it; a vineyard thou dost plant, and dost not make it common; <sup>31</sup> thine ox is slaughtered before thine eyes, and thou dost not eat of it; thine ass is taken violently away from before thee, and it is not given back to thee; thy sheep are given to thine enemies, and there is no saviour for thee. <sup>32</sup> `Thy sons and thy daughters are given to another people, and thine eyes are looking and consuming for them all the day, and thy hand is not to God! ³³ The fruit of thy ground, and all thy labour, eat up doth a people whom thou hast not known; and thou hast been only oppressed and bruised all the days;

³⁹ vineyards thou dost plant, and hast laboured, and wine thou dost not drink nor gather, for the worm doth consume it; ⁴⁰ olives are to thee in all thy border, and oil thou dost not pour out, for thine olive doth fall off. ⁴¹ `Sons and daughters thou dost beget, and they are not with thee, for they go into captivity; ⁴² all thy trees and the fruit of thy ground doth the locust possess; ⁴³ the sojourner who is in thy midst goeth up above thee very high, and thou goest down very low;

¹⁶ and David lifteth up his eyes, and seeth the messenger of Jehovah standing between the earth and the heavens, and his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem, and David falleth, and the elders, covered with sackcloth, on their faces.

²⁵ Therefore hath the anger of Jehovah burned among His people, And He stretcheth out His hand against it, And smiteth it, and the mountains tremble, And their carcase is as filth in the midst of the out-places. With all this His anger did not turn back, And still His hand is stretched out!

¹² Aram from before, and Philistia from behind, And they devour Israel with the whole mouth. With all this not turned back hath His anger, And still His hand is stretched out.

¹⁷ Therefore, over its young men the Lord rejoiceth not, And its orphans, and its widows He pitieth not, For every one is profane, and an evil doer, And every mouth is speaking folly. With all this not turned back hath His anger, And still His hand is stretched out.

²¹ Manasseh—Ephraim, and Ephraim—Manasseh, Together they are against Judah, With all this not turned back hath His anger. And still His hand is stretched out!

⁴ Without Me it hath bowed down In the place of a bound one, And in the place of the slain they fall. With all this not turned back hath His anger, And still His hand is stretched out.

²¹ And they have built houses, and inhabited, And planted vineyards, and eaten their fruit. ²² They do not build, and another inhabit, They do not plant, and another eat, For as the days of a tree are the days of My people, And the work of their hands wear out do My chosen ones.

¹⁰ Therefore, I give their wives to others, Their fields to dispossessors, For from the least even unto the greatest, Every one is gaining dishonest gain, From prophet even unto priest, every one is dealing falsely.

²² That, lo, all the women who have been left in the house of the king of Judah are brought forth unto the heads of the king of Babylon, and lo, they are saying: Persuaded thee, and prevailed against thee, Have thine allies, Sunk into mire have thy feet, They have been turned backward.

⁴ He hath trodden His bow as an enemy, Stood hath His right hand as an adversary, And He slayeth all the desirable ones of the eye, In the tent of the daughter of Zion, He hath poured out as fire His fury. ⁵ The Lord hath been as an enemy, He hath swallowed up Israel, He hath swallowed up all her palaces, He hath destroyed His fortresses, And He multiplieth in the daughter of Judah Mourning and moaning.

⁸ Devised hath Jehovah to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion, He hath stretched out a line, He hath not turned His hand from destroying, And He causeth bulwark and wall to mourn, Together—they have been weak.

³ Surely against me He turneth back, He turneth His hand all the day.

³ Orphans we have been—without a father, our mothers are as widows.

¹¹ Wives in Zion they have humbled, Virgins—in cities of Judah.

¹³ And their wealth hath been for a spoil, And their houses for desolation, And they have built houses, and do not inhabit, And they have planted vineyards, And they do not drink their wine.

⁷ And even these through wine have erred, And through strong drink have wandered, Priest and prophet erred through strong drink, They have been swallowed up of the wine, They wandered because of the strong drink, They have erred in seeing, They have stumbled judicially.

⁹ Every beast of the field, Come to devour, every beast in the forest. ¹⁰ Blind are his watchmen—all of them, They have not known, All of them are dumb dogs, they are not able to bark, Dozing, lying down, loving to slumber. ¹¹ And the dogs are strong of desire, They have not known sufficiency, And they are shepherds! They have not known understanding, All of them to their own way they did turn, Each to his dishonest gain from his quarter: ¹² `Come ye, I take wine, And we drink, quaff strong drink, And as this day hath been to-morrow, Great—exceeding abundant!'

¹⁷ For the iniquity of his dishonest gain, I have been wroth, and I smite him, Hiding—and am wroth, And he goeth on turning back in the way of his heart.

⁸ The priests have not said, `Where is Jehovah?' And those handling the law have not known Me. And the shepherds transgressed against Me, And the prophets have prophesied by Baal, And after those who profit not have gone.

²⁶ As the shame of a thief when he is found, So put to shame have been the house of Israel, They, their kings, their heads, And their priests, and their prophets,

³¹ The prophets have prophesied falsely, And the priests bear rule by their means, And My people have loved it so, And what do they at its latter end?

¹⁸ If I have gone forth to the field, Then, lo, the pierced of the sword! And if I have entered the city, Then, lo, the diseased of famine! For both prophet and priest have gone up and down Unto a land that they knew not.

¹⁷ But thine eyes and thy heart are not, Except on thy dishonest gain, And on shedding of innocent blood, And on oppression, and on doing of violence.

¹¹ For both prophet and priest have been profane, Yea, in My house I found their wickedness, An affirmation of Jehovah.

¹⁴ And in prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing, Committing adultery, and walking falsely, Yea, they strengthened the hands of evil doers, So that they have not turned back Each from his wickedness, They have been to me—all of them—as Sodom, And its inhabitants as Gomorrah. ¹⁵ Therefore, thus said Jehovah of Hosts, concerning the prophets: Lo, I am causing them to eat wormwood, And have caused them to drink water of gall, For, from prophets of Jerusalem Hath profanity gone forth to all the land.

⁷ And the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, hear Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of Jehovah, ⁸ And it cometh to pass, at the completion of Jeremiah's speaking all that Jehovah hath commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests, and the prophets, and all the people catch him, saying, Thou dost surely die,

³² Because of all the evil of the sons of Israel, and of the sons of Judah that they have done, so as to provoke Me—they, their kings, their heads, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹³ Because of the sins of her prophets, The iniquities of her priests, Who are shedding in her midst the blood of the righteous,

¹² A bribe they have taken in thee to shed blood, Usury and increase thou hast taken, And cuttest off thy neighbour by oppression, And Me thou hast forgotten, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah!

²⁵ A conspiracy of its prophets is in its midst, as a roaring lion tearing prey; The soul they have devoured, Wealth and glory they have taken, Its widows have multiplied in its midst. ²⁶ Its priests have wronged My law, And they pollute My holy things, Between holy and common they have not made separation, And between the unclean and the clean they have not made known, And from my sabbaths they have hidden their eyes, And I am pierced in their midst. ²⁷ Its princes in its midst are as wolves, Tearing prey, to shed blood, to destroy souls, For the sake of gaining dishonest gain. ²⁸ And its prophets have daubed for them with chalk, Seeing a vain thing, and divining for them a lie, Saying, `Thus said the Lord Jehovah:' And Jehovah hath not spoken.

³¹ And they come in unto thee as the coming in of a people, And they sit before thee—My people, And have heard thy words, and they do them not, For doting loves with their mouth they are making, After their dishonest gain their heart is going.

⁵ Thus said Jehovah concerning the prophets Who are causing My people to err, Who are biting with their teeth, And have cried `Peace,' And he who doth not give unto their mouth, They have sanctified against him war.

¹¹ Her heads for a bribe do judge, And her priests for hire do teach, And her prophets for silver divine, And on Jehovah they lean, saying, `Is not Jehovah in our midst? Evil doth not come in upon us.'

³ Her heads in her midst are roaring lions, Her judges are evening wolves, They have not gnawn the bone in the morning. ⁴ Her prophets unstable—men of treachery, Her priests have polluted the sanctuary, They have violated the law.

¹⁴ And also the Pharisees, being lovers of money, were hearing all these things, and were deriding him,

³ not given to wine, not a striker, not given to filthy lucre, but gentle, not contentious, not a lover of money,

³ and in covetousness, with moulded words, of you they shall make merchandise, whose judgment of old is not idle, and their destruction doth not slumber.

¹⁴ having eyes full of adultery, and unable to cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having an heart exercised in covetousnesses, children of a curse, ¹⁵ having forsaken a right way, they did go astray, having followed in the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who a reward of unrighteousness did love,

⁶ From the sole of the foot—unto the head, There is no soundness in it, Wound, and bruise, and fresh smiting! They have not been closed nor bound, Nor have they softened with ointment.

²⁶ And the light of the moon hath been as the light of the sun, And the light of the sun is sevenfold, As the light of seven days, In the day of Jehovah's binding up the breach of His people, When the stroke of its wound He healeth.

¹⁰ And I say, `Ah, Lord Jehovah, Surely thou hast entirely forgotten this people and Jerusalem, saying, Peace is for you, And struck hath a sword unto the soul!'

¹² They have lied against Jehovah, And they say, `It is not He, Nor come in against us doth evil, Yea, sword and famine we do not see.

¹¹ And they heal the breach of the daughter of my people slightly, Saying, Peace, peace! and there is no peace. ¹² They were ashamed when they did abomination! Yea, they are not at all ashamed, And blushing they have not known, Therefore, they do fall among falling ones, In the time of their inspection they stumble, said Jehovah.

¹³ And I say, `Ah, Lord Jehovah, Lo, the prophets are saying to them: Ye do not see a sword, yea, famine is not to you, For true peace I give to you in this place.'

¹⁷ And thou hast said unto them this word: Tears come down mine eyes night and day, And they do not cease, For, with a great breach, Broken hath been the virgin daughter of my people, A very grievous stroke.

¹⁷ Saying diligently to those despising The word of Jehovah: Peace is for you, And to every one walking in the stubbornness of his heart they have said: Evil doth not come in unto you.

³ Within two years of days I am bringing back unto this place all the vessels of the house of Jehovah that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon hath taken from this place, and doth carry to Babylon,

¹⁴ Thy prophets have seen for thee a false and insipid thing, And have not revealed concerning thine iniquity, To turn back thy captivity, And they see for thee false burdens and causes of expulsion.

¹⁰ Because, even because, they did cause My people to err, Saying, Peace! and there is no peace, And that one is building a wall, And lo, they are daubing it with chalk.

²² Because of paining the heart of the righteous with falsehood, And I have not pained it, And strengthening the hands of the wicked, So as not to turn back from his evil way, To keep him alive,

¹¹ If one is going with the wind, And with falsehood hath lied: `I prophesy to thee of wine, and of strong drink,' He hath been the prophet of this people!

¹ And there did come also false prophets among the people, as also among you there shall be false teachers, who shall bring in besides destructive sects, and the Master who bought them denying, bringing to themselves quick destruction,

¹⁸ for overswellings of vanity speaking, they do entice in desires of the flesh—lasciviousnesses, those who had truly escaped from those conducting themselves in error, ¹⁹ liberty to them promising, themselves being servants of the corruption, for by whom any one hath been overcome, to this one also he hath been brought to servitude,

³⁴ and now, go, lead the people whithersoever I have spoken to thee of; lo, My messenger goeth before thee, and in the day of my charging—then I have charged upon them their sin.'

¹ A man often reproved, hardening the neck, Is suddenly broken, and there is no healing.

⁹ The appearance of their faces witnessed against them, And their sin, as Sodom, they declared, They have not hidden! Woe to their soul, For they have done to themselves evil.

³ And withheld are showers, and gathered rain hath not been. The forehead of a whorish woman thou hast, Thou hast refused to be ashamed.

⁹ For these do I not lay a charge? An affirmation of Jehovah, And on a nation such as this, Doth not My soul avenge itself?

²⁹ For these do not I inspect, an affirmation of Jehovah, On a nation such as this, Doth not My soul avenge itself?

¹² They were ashamed when they did abomination! Yea, they are not at all ashamed, And blushing they have not known, Therefore, they do fall among falling ones, In the time of their inspection they stumble, said Jehovah.

¹² Therefore is their way to them as slippery places, Into thick darkness they are driven, And they have fallen in it, For I bring in against them evil, The year of their inspection, An affirmation of Jehovah.

⁴ And the sons are brazen-faced and hard-hearted to whom I am sending thee, and thou hast said unto them: Thus said the Lord Jehovah:

⁶ An end hath come, come hath the end, It hath waked for thee, lo, it hath come. ⁷ Come hath the morning unto thee, O inhabitant of the land! Come hath the time, near is a day of trouble, And not the shouting of mountains. ⁸ Now, shortly I pour out My fury on thee, And have completed Mine anger against thee, And judged thee according to thy ways, And set against thee all thine abominations. ⁹ And not pity doth Mine eye, nor do I spare, According to thy ways unto thee I give, And thine abominations are in thy midst, And ye have known that I am Jehovah the smiter.

⁹ `And the prophet, when he is enticed, and hath spoken a word—I, Jehovah, I have enticed that prophet, and have stretched out My hand against him, and have destroyed him from the midst of My people Israel. ¹⁰ And they have borne their iniquity: as the iniquity of the inquirer, so is the iniquity of the prophet;

²⁴ That thou dost build to thee an arch, And dost make to thee a high place in every broad place. ²⁵ At every head of the way thou hast built thy high place, And thou dost make thy beauty abominable, And dost open wide thy feet to every passer by, And dost multiply thy whoredoms,

⁷ Come in have the days of inspection, Come in have the days of recompence, Israel doth know! a fool is the prophet, Mad is the man of the Spirit, Because of the abundance of thine iniquity, And great is the hatred.

⁶ Therefore a night ye have without vision, And darkness ye have without divination, And gone in hath the sun on the prophets, And black over them hath been the day.

⁴ Their best one is as a brier, The upright one—than a thorn-hedge, The day of thy watchmen—Thy visitation—hath come. Now is their perplexity.

⁵ Jehovah is righteous in her midst, He doth not do perverseness, Morning by morning His judgment he giveth to the light, It hath not been lacking, And the perverse doth not know shame.

¹⁴ let them alone, guides they are—blind of blind; and if blind may guide blind, both into a ditch shall fall.'

¹⁹ whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who the things on earth are minding.

⁷ Remember days of old—Understand the years of many generations—Ask thy father, and he doth tell thee; Thine elders, and they say to thee:

⁷ Declare to me, thou whom my soul hath loved, Where thou delightest, Where thou liest down at noon, For why am I as one veiled, By the ranks of thy companions? ⁸ If thou knowest not, O fair among women, Get thee forth by the traces of the flock, And feed thy kids by the shepherds' dwellings!

⁵ O house of Jacob, come, And we walk in the light of Jehovah.'

²⁰ To the law and to the testimony! If not, let them say after this manner, `That there is no dawn to it.'

¹² Unto whom He hath said, `This is the rest, give ye rest to the weary, And this—the refreshing:' And they have not been willing to hear,

²¹ And thine ear heareth a word behind thee, Saying, `This is the way, go ye in it,' When ye turn to the right, And when ye turn to the left.

²⁵ Withhold thy foot from being unshod, And thy throat from thirst, And thou sayest, `It is incurable, No, for I have loved strangers, and after them I go.'

²³ But this thing I commanded them, saying: Hearken to My voice, And I have been to you for God, And ye—ye are to Me for a people, And have walked in all the way that I command you, So that it is well for you.

¹² And they have said, It is incurable, For after our own devices we do go, And each the stubbornness of his evil heart we do.

¹⁵ But My people have forgotten Me, to a vain thing they make perfume, And they cause them to stumble in their ways—paths of old, To walk in paths—a way not raised up,

²¹ I have spoken unto thee in thine ease, Thou hast said, `I do not hearken,' This is thy way from thy youth, For thou hast not hearkened to My voice.

¹⁶ `The word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of Jehovah—we are not hearkening unto thee;

⁴ Remember ye the law of Moses My servant, That I did command him in Horeb, For all Israel—statutes and judgments.

²⁸ `Come unto me, all ye labouring and burdened ones, and I will give you rest, ²⁹ take up my yoke upon you, and learn from me, because I am meek and humble in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls,

²⁸ `And what think ye? A man had two children, and having come to the first, he said, Child, go, to-day be working in my vineyard.' <sup>29</sup> And he answering said, `I will not,' but at last, having repented, he went. ³⁰ `And having come to the second, he said in the same manner, and he answering said, I go, sir, and went not; <sup>31</sup> which of the two did the will of the father?' They say to him, `The first.' Jesus saith to them, `Verily I say to you, that the tax-gatherers and the harlots do go before you into the reign of God, ³² for John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye did not believe him, and the tax-gatherers and the harlots did believe him, and ye, having seen, repented not at last—to believe him.

²⁹ `Abraham saith to him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them;

³⁹ `Ye search the Writings, because ye think in them to have life age-during, and these are they that are testifying concerning me;

⁴⁶ for if ye were believing Moses, ye would have been believing me, for he wrote concerning me; ⁴⁷ but if his writings ye believe not, how shall ye believe my sayings?'

³⁵ Jesus, therefore, said to them, `Yet a little time is the light with you; walk while ye have the light, that darkness may not overtake you; and he who is walking in the darkness hath not known where he goeth;

¹⁷ if these things ye have known, happy are ye, if ye may do them;

¹¹ and these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, they received the word with all readiness of mind, every day examining the Writings whether those things were so;

¹ What, then, shall we say Abraham our father, to have found, according to flesh? ² for if Abraham by works was declared righteous, he hath to boast—but not before God; ³ for what doth the writing say? `And Abraham did believe God, and it was reckoned to him—to righteousness;' ⁴ and to him who is working, the reward is not reckoned of grace, but of debt; ⁵ and to him who is not working, and is believing upon Him who is declaring righteous the impious, his faith is reckoned—to righteousness: ⁶ even as David also doth speak of the happiness of the man to whom God doth reckon righteousness apart from works:

¹² and father of circumcision to those not of circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of the faith, that is in the uncircumcision of our father Abraham.

⁶ as, then, ye did receive Christ Jesus the Lord, in him walk ye,

¹² that ye may not become slothful, but followers of those who through faith and patient endurance are inheriting the promises.

² for in this were the elders testified of;

¹¹ The burden of Dumah. Unto me is one calling from Seir `Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?'

¹⁰ Blind are his watchmen—all of them, They have not known, All of them are dumb dogs, they are not able to bark, Dozing, lying down, loving to slumber.

¹ Call with the throat, restrain not, As a trumpet lift up thy voice, And declare to My people their transgression, And to the house of Jacob their sins;

⁴ And Jehovah hath sent unto you all His servants, the prophets, rising early and sending, and ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear, saying:

¹⁷ that there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying, `Son of man, a watchman I have given thee to the house of Israel, and thou hast heard from My mouth a word, and hast warned them from Me.

² `Son of man, speak unto the sons of thy people, and thou hast said unto them: A land—when I bring in against it a sword, And the people of the land have taken one man out of their borders, And made him to them for a watchman. ³ And he hath seen the sword coming against the land, And hath blown with a trumpet, and hath warned the people, ⁴ And the hearer hath heard the voice of the trumpet, and he hath not taken warning, And come in doth the sword, and taketh him away, His blood is on his head. ⁵ The voice of the trumpet he heard, And he hath not taken warning, his blood is on him, And he who took warning his soul hath delivered. ⁶ And the watchman, when he seeth the sword coming in, And he hath not blown with a trumpet, And the people hath not been warned, And come in doth a sword, And taketh away of them—a soul, He in his iniquity is taken away, And his blood from the hand of the watchman I require. ⁷ And thou, son of man, A watchman I gave thee to the house of Israel, And thou hast heard from My mouth a word, And thou hast warned them from Me. ⁸ In My saying to the wicked, O wicked one—thou dost surely die, And thou hast not spoken to warn the wicked from his way, He—the wicked—in his iniquity doth die, And his blood from thy hand I require. ⁹ And thou, when thou hast warned the wicked of his way, to turn back from it, And he hath not turned back from his way, He in his iniquity doth die, And thou thy soul hast delivered.

¹ `Unto thy mouth—a trumpet, As an eagle against the house of Jehovah, Because they transgressed My covenant, And against My law they have rebelled.

⁶ Is a trumpet blown in a city, And do people not tremble? Is there affliction in a city, And Jehovah hath not done it ? ⁷ For the Lord Jehovah doth nothing, Except He hath revealed His counsel unto His servants the prophets. ⁸ A lion hath roared—who doth not fear? The Lord Jehovah hath spoken—who doth not prophesy?

¹ On my charge I stand, and I station myself on a bulwark, and I watch to see what He doth speak against me, and what I do reply to my reproof.

¹¹ And they refuse to attend, And they give a refractory shoulder, And their ears have made heavy against hearing.

²⁷ for I did not keep back from declaring to you all the counsel of God. ²⁸ `Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit made you overseers, to feed the assembly of God that He acquired through His own blood, <sup>29</sup> for I have known this, that there shall enter in, after my departing, grievous wolves unto you, not sparing the flock, <sup>30</sup> and of your own selves there shall arise men, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. <sup>31</sup> `Therefore, watch, remembering that three years, night and day, I did not cease with tears warning each one;

¹⁷ Be obedient to those leading you, and be subject, for these do watch for your souls, as about to give account, that with joy they may do this, and not sighing, for this is unprofitable to you.

²⁴ yea, all the nations have said, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus to this land? what the heat of this great anger? ²⁵ `And they have said, Because that they have forsaken the covenant of Jehovah, God of their fathers, which He made with them in His bringing them out of the land of Egypt, ²⁶ and they go and serve other gods, and bow themselves to them—gods which they have not known, and which He hath not apportioned to them; ²⁷ and the anger of Jehovah burneth against that land, to bring in on it all the reviling that is written in this book, ²⁸ and Jehovah doth pluck them from off their ground in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath, and doth cast them unto another land, as at this day.

⁴ He doth call unto the heavens from above, And unto the earth, to judge His people. ⁵ Gather ye to Me My saints, Making covenant with Me over a sacrifice. ⁶ And the heavens declare His righteousness, For God Himself is judge. Selah.

³ And now, O inhabitant of Jerusalem, and man of Judah, Judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard.

¹⁰ Hear a word of Jehovah, O nations, And declare ye among isles afar off, and say: He who is scattering Israel doth gather him, And hath kept him as a shepherd doth his flock,

⁵ O My people, remember, I pray you, What counsel did Balak king of Moab, What answer him did Balaam son of Beor, (From Shittim unto Gilgal,) In order to know the righteous acts of Jehovah.'

²⁶ I have caused to testify against you this day the heavens and the earth, that ye do perish utterly hastily from off the land whither ye are passing over the Jordan to possess it; ye do not prolong days upon it, but are utterly destroyed;

¹⁹ `I have caused to testify against you to-day the heavens and the earth; life and death I have set before thee, the blessing and the reviling; and thou hast fixed on life, so that thou dost live, thou and thy seed,

¹ `Give ear, O heavens, and I speak; And thou dost hear, O earth, sayings of my mouth!

²³ for a sin of divination is rebellion, and iniquity and teraphim is stubbornness; because thou hast rejected the word of Jehovah, He also doth reject thee from being king.'

²⁶ And Samuel saith unto Saul, `I do not turn back with thee; for thou hast rejected the word of Jehovah, and Jehovah doth reject thee from being king over Israel.'

²⁴ Because I have called, and ye refuse, I stretched out my hand, and none is attending, ²⁵ And ye slight all my counsel, And my reproof ye have not desired. ²⁶ I also in your calamity do laugh, I deride when your fear cometh, ²⁷ When your fear cometh as destruction, And your calamity as a hurricane doth come, When on you come adversity and distress. ²⁸ Then they call me, and I do not answer, They seek me earnestly, and find me not. ²⁹ Because that they have hated knowledge, And the fear of Jehovah have not chosen. ³⁰ They have not consented to my counsel, They have despised all my reproof, ³¹ And they eat of the fruit of their way, And from their own counsels they are filled.

²⁶ An abomination to Jehovah are thoughts of wickedness, And pure are sayings of pleasantness.

⁹ Whoso is turning his ear from hearing the law, Even his prayer is an abomination.

² Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, For Jehovah hath spoken: Sons I have nourished and brought up, And they—they transgressed against Me.

⁷ Their feet to evil do run, And they haste to shed innocent blood, Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, Spoiling and destruction are in their highways.

¹⁸ And I—their works and their thoughts, I come to gather all the nations and tongues, And they have come and seen My honour.

¹⁰ To whom do I speak, and testify, and they hear? Lo, their ear is uncircumcised, And they are not able to attend. Lo, a word of Jehovah hath been to them for a reproach, They delight not in it.

⁹ Ashamed have been the wise, They have been affrighted, and are captured, Lo, against a word of Jehovah they kicked, And the wisdom of what—have they?

¹⁰ I Jehovah do search the heart, try the reins, Even to give to each according to his way, According to the fruit of his doings.

¹⁵ `Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: Lo, I am bringing in unto this city, and on all its cities, all the evil that I have spoken against it, for they have hardened their neck—not to hear My words!'

²⁹ Earth, earth, earth, hear a word of Jehovah,

⁶ Cut off have been My people for lack of knowledge, Because thou knowledge hast rejected, I reject thee from being priest to Me, And thou forgettest the law of thy God, I forget thy sons, I also!

¹³ Ye have ploughed wickedness, Perversity ye have reaped, Ye have eaten the fruit of lying, For thou hast trusted in thy way, In the abundance of thy might.

² Hear, O mountains, the strife of Jehovah, Ye strong ones—foundations of earth! For a strife is to Jehovah, with His people, And with Israel He doth reason.

¹⁹ `And this is the judgment, that the light hath come to the world, and men did love the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil; ²⁰ for every one who is doing wicked things hateth the light, and doth not come unto the light, that his works may not be detected; ²¹ but he who is doing the truth doth come to the light, that his works may be manifested, that in God they are having been wrought.'

⁴⁸ `He who is rejecting me, and not receiving my sayings, hath one who is judging him, the word that I spake, that will judge him in the last day,

²² reform, therefore, from this thy wickedness, and beseech God, if then the purpose of thy heart may be forgiven thee,

²³ `And thou, take to thyself principal spices, wild honey five hundred shekels; and spice-cinnamon, the half of that, two hundred and fifty; and spice-cane two hundred and fifty;

¹ And the queen of Sheba is hearing of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of Jehovah, and cometh to try him with enigmas, ² and she cometh to Jerusalem, with a very great company, camels bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stone, and she cometh unto Solomon, and speaketh unto him all that hath been with her heart.

¹⁰ And she giveth to the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and spices very many, and precious stone; there came not like that spice any more for abundance that the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.

⁶ Sacrifice and present Thou hast not desired, Ears Thou hast prepared for me, Burnt and sin-offering Thou hast not asked.

⁷ Hear, O My people, and I speak, O Israel, and I testify against thee, God, thy God am I. ⁸ Not for thy sacrifices do I reprove thee, Yea, thy burnt-offerings Are before Me continually. ⁹ I take not from thy house a bullock, From thy folds he goats. ¹⁰ For Mine is every beast of the forest, The cattle on the hills of oxen. ¹¹ I have known every fowl of the mountains, And the wild beast of the field is with Me. ¹² If I am hungry I tell not to thee, For Mine is the world and its fulness. ¹³ Do I eat the flesh of bulls, And drink the blood of he-goats?

¹⁶ And to the wicked hath God said: What to thee—to recount My statutes? That thou liftest up My covenant on thy mouth? ¹⁷ Yea, thou hast hated instruction, And dost cast My words behind thee.

³ Say to God, `How fearful are Thy works, By the abundance of Thy strength, Thine enemies feign obedience to Thee.

¹¹ `Why to Me the abundance of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah, I have been satiated with burnt-offerings of rams, And fat of fatlings; And blood of bullocks, and lambs, And he-goats I have not desired.

²³ Thou hast not brought in to Me, The lamb of thy burnt-offerings, And with thy sacrifices thou hast not honoured Me, I have not caused thee to serve with a present, Nor wearied thee with frankincense. ²⁴ Thou hast not bought for Me with money sweet cane, And with the fat of thy sacrifices hast not filled Me, Only—thou hast caused Me to serve with thy sins, Thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities.

⁶ A company of camels covereth thee, Dromedaries of Midian and Ephah, All of them from Sheba do come, Gold and frankincense they bear, And of the praises of Jehovah they proclaim the tidings.

³ Whoso slaughtereth the ox smiteth a man, Whoso sacrificeth the lamb beheadeth a dog, Whoso is bringing up a present—The blood of a sow, Whoso is making mention of frankincense, Is blessing iniquity. Yea, they have fixed on their own ways, And in their abominations their soul hath delighted.

²¹ Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel, Your burnt-offerings add to your sacrifices, And eat ye flesh. ²² For I did not speak with your fathers, Nor did I command them in the day of My bringing them out of the land of Egypt, Concerning the matters of burnt-offering and sacrifice, ²³ But this thing I commanded them, saying: Hearken to My voice, And I have been to you for God, And ye—ye are to Me for a people, And have walked in all the way that I command you, So that it is well for you.

³⁹ And ye, O house of Israel, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Each his idols—go—serve ye, And, afterwards, if ye are not hearkening to me, And My holy name ye do not pollute any more by your gifts, and by your idols.

²² Merchants of Sheba and Raamah—they are thy merchants, For the chief of all spices, And for every precious stone, and gold, They have given out thy remnants.

²¹ I have hated—I have loathed your festivals, And I am not refreshed by your restraints. ²² For though ye cause burnt-offerings and your presents to ascend to Me, I am not pleased, And the peace-offering of your fatlings I behold not.

⁶ With what do I come before Jehovah? Do I bow to God Most High? Do I come before Him with burnt-offerings? With calves—sons of a year? ⁷ Is Jehovah pleased with thousands of rams? With myriads of streams of oil? Do I give my first-born for my transgression? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? ⁸ He hath declared to thee, O man, what is good; Yea, what is Jehovah requiring of thee, Except—to do judgment, and love kindness, And lowly to walk with thy God?

¹⁷ And He causeth to go up against them the king of the Chaldeans, and he slayeth their chosen ones by the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and hath had no pity on young man and virgin, old man and very aged—the whole He hath given into his hand.

¹⁴ And He hath been for a sanctuary, And for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of falling, To the two houses of Israel, For a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁴ And Jehovah cutteth off from Israel head and tail, Branch and reed—the same day, ¹⁵ Elder, and accepted of face, he is the head, Prophet, teacher of falsehood, he is the tail. ¹⁶ And the eulogists of this people are causing to err, And its eulogised ones are consumed. ¹⁷ Therefore, over its young men the Lord rejoiceth not, And its orphans, and its widows He pitieth not, For every one is profane, and an evil doer, And every mouth is speaking folly. With all this not turned back hath His anger, And still His hand is stretched out.

² And it hath been—as a people so a priest, As the servant so his master, As the maid-servant so her mistress, As the buyer so the seller, As the lender so the borrower, As the usurer so he who is lifting it on himself. ³ Utterly emptied is the land, and utterly spoiled, For Jehovah hath spoken this word:

²¹ For death hath come up into our windows, It hath come into our palaces, To cut off the suckling from without, Young men from the broad places. ²² Speak thus—an affirmation of Jehovah, And fallen hath the carcase of man, As dung on the face of the field, And as a handful after the reaper, And there is none gathering.

¹⁶ Give ye to Jehovah your God honour, Before He doth cause darkness, And before your feet stumble on dark mountains, And ye have waited for light, And He hath made it for death-shade, And hath appointed it for thick darkness.

² And it hath come to pass, when they say to thee, Whither do we go out? that thou hast said unto them, Thus said Jehovah: Those who are for death—to death, And those who are for the sword, to the sword, And those who are for famine, to famine, And those who are for captivity, to captivity. ³ And I have appointed over them four kinds, an affirmation of Jehovah, The sword to slay, and the dogs to drag, And the fowl of the heavens, And the beast of the earth, to consume and to devour. ⁴ And I have given them for a trembling To all kingdoms of the earth, Because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah, For that which he did in Jerusalem. ⁵ For who hath pity on thee, O Jerusalem? And who doth bemoan for thee? And who turneth aside to ask of thy welfare? ⁶ Thou—thou hast left Me—an affirmation of Jehovah, Backward thou goest, And I stretch out My hand against thee, And I destroy thee, I have been weary of repenting, ⁷ And I scatter them with a fan, in the gates the land, I bereaved, I have destroyed My people, From their ways they turned not back. ⁸ Its widows have been more to Me than the sand of the seas, I brought in to them—against the mother—A young man—a spoiler—at noon. I caused to fall upon her suddenly, wrath and trouble. ⁹ Languished hath the bearer of seven, She hath breathed out her spirit, Gone in hath her sun while yet day, It hath been ashamed and confounded, And their residue to the sword I give up before their enemies, An affirmation of Jehovah.

³ For thus said Jehovah, Of the sons and of the daughters who are born in this place, And of their mothers—those bearing them, And of their fathers—those begetting them in this land: ⁴ Of painful deaths they die, They are not lamented, nor are they buried, For dung on the face of the ground they are, And by sword and by famine are consumed, And their carcase hath been for food To the fowl of the heavens, And to the beast of the earth. ⁵ For thus said Jehovah: Do not enter the house of a mourning-feast, Nor go to lament nor bemoan for them, For I have removed My peace from this people, An affirmation of Jehovah, The kindness and the mercies. ⁶ And died have great and small in this land, They are not buried, and none lament for them, Nor doth any cut himself, nor become bald for them. ⁷ Nor do they deal out to them for mourning, To comfort him concerning the dead, Nor cause them to drink a cup of consolations For his father and for his mother. ⁸ A house of banqueting thou dost not enter, To sit with them, to eat and to drink, ⁹ For thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: Lo, I am causing to cease from this place, Before your eyes, and in your days, The voice of joy, and the voice of rejoicing, The voice of bridegroom and voice of bride.

⁷ And I have made void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and have caused them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those seeking their life, and I have given their carcase for food to the fowl of the heavens, and to the beast of the earth, ⁸ and I have made this city for a desolation, and for a hissing, every passer by it is astonished, and doth hiss for all its plagues. ⁹ And I have caused them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters, and each the flesh of his friend they do eat, in the siege and in the straitness with which straiten them do their enemies, and those seeking their life.

⁷ And after this—an affirmation of Jehovah, I give Zedekiah king of Judah, And his servants, and the people, And those left in this city, From the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, Into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, And into the hand of their enemies, And into the hand of those seeking their life, And he hath smitten them by the mouth of the sword, He hath no pity on them, Nor doth he spare, nor hath he mercy.

²⁰ See, O Jehovah, and look attentively, To whom Thou hast acted thus, Do women eat their fruit, infants of a handbreadth? Slain in the sanctuary of the Lord are priest and prophet? ²¹ Lain on the earth in out-places have young and old, My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword, Thou hast slain in a day of Thine anger, Thou hast slaughtered—Thou hast not pitied. ²² Thou dost call as at a day of appointment, My fears from round about, And there hath not been in the day of the anger of Jehovah, An escaped and remaining one, They whom I stretched out and nourished, My enemy hath consumed!

²⁰ `And in the turning back of the righteous from his righteousness, and he hath done perversity, and I have put a stumbling-block before him, he dieth; because thou hast not warned him, in his sin he dieth, and not remembered is his righteousness that he hath done, and his blood from thy hand I require.

¹⁰ Therefore fathers do eat sons in thy midst, And sons eat their fathers, And I have done in thee judgments, And have scattered all thy remnant to every wind.

⁵ And to the others he said in mine ears, `Pass on into the city after him, and smite; your eye doth not pity, nor do ye spare; <sup>6</sup> aged, young man, and virgin, and infant, and women, ye do slay—to destruction; and against any man on whom is the mark ye do not go nigh, and from My sanctuary ye begin.' <sup>7</sup> And they begin among the aged men who are before the house, and He saith unto them, `Defile the house, and fill the courts with the wounded, go forth.' And they have gone forth and have smitten in the city.

³³ according as it hath been written, `Lo, I place in Sion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence; and every one who is believing thereon shall not be ashamed.'

⁹ and David saith, `Let their table become for a snare, and for a trap, and for a stumbling-block, and for a recompense to them;

⁸ and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence—who are stumbling at the word, being unbelieving, —to which also they were set;

¹⁵ Lo, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, an affirmation of Jehovah, A nation—strong it is, a nation—from of old it is, A nation—thou knowest not its tongue, Nor understandest what it speaketh.

¹ Strengthen yourselves, sons of Benjamin, From the midst of Jerusalem, And in Tekoa blow ye a trumpet, And over Beth-Haccerem lift ye up a flame, For evil hath been seen from the north, And great destruction.

⁴¹ Lo, a people hath come from the north, Even a great nation, And many kings are stirred up from the sides of the earth. ⁴² Bow and halbert they seize, Cruel are they, and they have no mercy, Their voice as a sea soundeth, and on horses they ride, Set in array as a man for battle, Against thee, O daughter of Babylon. ⁴³ Heard hath the king of Babylon their report, And feeble have been his hands, Distress hath seized him; pain as a travailing woman.

¹⁸ And bows dash young men to pieces, And the fruit of the womb they pity not, On sons their eye hath no pity.

⁴ And I have delivered the Egyptians Into the hand of a hard lord, And a strong king doth rule over them, An affirmation of the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts.

¹³ Lo, as clouds he cometh up, And as a hurricane his chariots, Lighter than eagles have been his horses, Woe to us, for we have been spoiled.

¹⁶ Its quiver is as an open sepulchre, All of them—mighty ones.

¹⁴ all loving thee have forgotten thee, Thee they do not seek, For with the stroke of an enemy I smote thee, The chastisement of a fierce one, Because of the abundance of thy iniquity, Mighty have been thy sins!

⁴² Bow and halbert they seize, Cruel are they, and they have no mercy, Their voice as a sea soundeth, and on horses they ride, Set in array as a man for battle, Against thee, O daughter of Babylon.

²² Therefore, O Aholibah, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I am stirring up thy lovers against thee, From whom thy soul hath been alienated, And have brought them in against thee from round about. ²³ Sons of Babylon, and of all Chaldea, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, All the sons of Asshur with them, Desirable young men, governors and prefects, All of them—rulers and proclaimed ones, Riding on horses, all of them. ²⁴ And they have come in against thee, With arms, rider, and wheel, And with an assembly of peoples; Target, and shield, and helmet, They do set against thee round about, And I have set before them judgment, They have judged thee in their Judgments. ²⁵ And I have set My jealousy against thee, And they have dealt with thee in fury, Thy nose and thine ears they turn aside, And thy posterity by sword falleth, They, thy sons and thy daughters do take away, And thy posterity is devoured by fire.

⁶ For, lo, I am raising up the Chaldeans, The bitter and hasty nation, That is going to the broad places of earth, To occupy tabernacles not its own. ⁷ Terrible and fearful it is, From itself its judgment and its excellency go forth. ⁸ Swifter than leopards have been its horses, And sharper than evening wolves, And increased have its horsemen, Even its horsemen from afar come in, They fly as an eagle, hasting to consume. ⁹ Wholly for violence it doth come in, Their faces swallowing up the east wind, And it doth gather as the sand a captivity. ¹⁰ And at kings it doth scoff, And princes are a laughter to it, At every fenced place it doth laugh, And it heapeth up dust, and captureth it.

²⁵ `And there shall be signs in sun, and moon, and stars, and on the land is distress of nations with perplexity, sea and billow roaring; ²⁶ men fainting at heart from fear, and expectation of the things coming on the world, for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.

⁶ Trembling hath seized them there, Pain, as of a travailing woman.

²⁷ When your fear cometh as destruction, And your calamity as a hurricane doth come, When on you come adversity and distress. ²⁸ Then they call me, and I do not answer, They seek me earnestly, and find me not.

³ Therefore filled have been my loins with great pain, Pangs have seized me as pangs of a travailing woman, I have been bent down by hearing, I have been troubled by seeing.

¹⁹ From the fulness of its passing over it taketh you, For morning by morning it passeth over, By day and by night, And it hath been only a trembling to consider the report.

⁶ Lift up an ensign Zionward, Strengthen yourselves, stand not still, For evil I am bringing in from the north, And a great destruction. ⁷ Gone up hath a lion from his thicket, And a destroyer of nations hath journeyed, He hath come forth from his place To make thy land become a desolation, Thy cities are laid waste, without inhabitant. ⁸ For this, gird on sackcloth, lament and howl, For the fierce anger of Jehovah hath not turned back from us. ⁹ And it hath come to pass, in that day, An affirmation of Jehovah: `Perish doth the heart of the king, And the heart of the princes, And astonished have been the priests, And the prophets do wonder.'

¹⁹ My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at the walls of my heart, Make a noise for me doth My heart, I am not silent, For the voice of a trumpet I have heard, O my soul—a shout of battle! ²⁰ Destruction on destruction is proclaimed, For spoiled hath been all the land, Suddenly spoiled have been my tents, In a moment—my curtains. ²¹ Till when do I see an ensign? Do I hear the voice of a trumpet?

²¹ What dost thou say, when He looketh after thee? And thou—thou hast taught them to be over thee—leaders for head? Do not pangs seize thee as a travailing woman?

²³ O dweller in Lebanon, making a nest among cedars, How gracious hast thou been when pangs come to thee, Pain—as of a travailing woman.

⁶ Ask, I pray you, and see, is a male bringing forth? Wherefore have I seen every man, His hands on his loins, as a travailing woman, And all faces have been turned to paleness?

²⁴ Feeble hath been Damascus, She turned to flee, and fear strengthened her, Distress and pangs have seized her, as a travailing woman.

⁴³ Heard hath the king of Babylon their report, And feeble have been his hands, Distress hath seized him; pain as a travailing woman.

⁶ And thou, son of man, sigh with breaking of loins, yea, with bitterness thou dost sigh before their eyes, ⁷ and it hath come to pass, when they say unto thee, For what art thou sighing? that thou hast said: Because of the report, for it is coming, And melted hath every heart, And feeble hath been all hands, And weak is every spirit, And all knees go—waters, Lo, it is coming, yea, it hath been, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.'

⁹ Now, why dost thou shout aloud? A king—is there none in thee? Hath thy counsellor perished, That taken hold of thee hath pain as a travailing woman? ¹⁰ Be pained, and bring forth, O daughter of Zion, As a travailing woman, For now, thou goest forth from the city, And thou hast dwelt in the field, And thou hast gone unto Babylon, There thou art delivered, There redeem thee doth Jehovah from the hand of thine enemies.

¹⁶ I have heard, and my belly trembleth, At the noise have my lips quivered, Rottenness doth come into my bones, And in my place I do tremble, That I rest for a day of distress, At the coming up of the people, he overcometh it.

³ for when they may say, Peace and surety, then sudden destruction doth stand by them, as the travail doth her who is with child, and they shall not escape;

⁶ In the days of Shamgar son of Anath—In the days of Jael—The ways have ceased, And those going in the paths go in crooked ways. ⁷ Villages ceased in Israel—they ceased, Till that I arose—Deborah, That I arose, a mother in Israel.

⁵ and in those times there is no peace to him who is going out, and to him who is coming in, for many troubles are on all the inhabitants of the lands,

¹¹ Round about terrified him have terrors, And they have scattered him—at his feet.

¹³ For I have heard an evil account of many, Fear is round about. In their being united against me, To take my life they have devised,

²⁰ And if ye refuse, and have rebelled, By the sword ye are consumed, For the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken.

⁵ Declare in Judah, and in Jerusalem sound, And say ye, `Blow a trumpet in the land,' Call ye fully, and say ye: `Be gathered, and we go in to the fenced city.'

¹⁴ Wherefore are we sitting still? Be gathered, and we go in to the fenced cities, And we are silent there, For Jehovah our God hath made us silent, Yea, He causeth us to drink water of gall, For we have sinned against Jehovah.

³ and it cometh to pass on the morrow, that Pashhur bringeth out Jeremiah from the stocks, and Jeremiah saith unto him, `Not Pashhur hath Jehovah called thy name, but—Magor-Missabib. ⁴ For thus said Jehovah: Lo, I am making thee for a fear to thyself, And to all loving thee, And they have fallen by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes are beholding, And all Judah I give into the hand of the king of Babylon, And he hath removed them to Babylon, And he hath smitten them with the sword.

¹⁰ For I have heard the evil report of many, Fear is round about: `Declare, and we declare it,' All mine allies are watching for my halting, `Perhaps he is enticed, and we prevail over him, And we take our vengeance out of him.'

²⁹ Their tents and their flock they do take, Their curtains, and all their vessels, And their camels, they bear away for themselves, And they called concerning them, Fear is round about.

⁴ Therefore I said, `Look ye from me, I am bitter in my weeping, Haste not to comfort me, For the destruction of the daughter of my people.'

¹² And call doth the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, In that day, to weeping and to lamentation, And to baldness and to girding on of sackcloth,

¹³ Therefore is this iniquity to you as a breach falling, Swelled out in a wall set on high, Whose destruction suddenly, at an instant cometh.

¹¹ Tremble ye women, ye easy ones, Be troubled, ye confident ones, Strip and make bare, with a girdle on the loins,

⁸ For this, gird on sackcloth, lament and howl, For the fierce anger of Jehovah hath not turned back from us.

¹¹ At that time it is said of this people, And of Jerusalem: `A dry wind of high places in the wilderness,' The way of the daughter of My people, (Not for winnowing, nor for cleansing,)

²⁰ Destruction on destruction is proclaimed, For spoiled hath been all the land, Suddenly spoiled have been my tents, In a moment—my curtains.

¹⁴ And they heal the breach of the daughter of my people slightly, Saying, `Peace, peace!' and there is no peace.

¹⁹ Lo, the voice of a cry of the daughter of my people from a land afar off, Is Jehovah not in Zion? is her king not in her? Wherefore have they provoked Me with their graven images, With the vanities of a foreigner?

²¹ For a breach of the daughter of my people have I been broken, I have been black, astonishment hath seized me.

¹⁰ For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing, And for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, For they have been burnt up without any passing over, Nor have they heard the voice of cattle, From the fowl of the heavens unto the beast they have fled, they have gone.

¹⁷ Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Consider ye, and call for mourning women, And they come, And to the wise women send, and they come, ¹⁸ And they hasten, and lift up for us a wailing. And run down our eyes do tears, And from our eyelids do waters flow. ¹⁹ For—a voice of wailing is heard from Zion: How have we been spoiled! We have been greatly ashamed, Because we have forsaken the land, Because they have cast down our tabernacles. ²⁰ But hear, ye women, a word of Jehovah, And your ear receiveth a word of His mouth, And teach ye your daughters wailing, and each her neighbour lamentation.

¹² On all high places in the plain have spoilers come in, For the sword of Jehovah is consuming, From the end of the land even unto the end of the land, There is no peace to any flesh.

¹⁷ And if ye do not hear it, In secret places doth my soul weep, because of pride, Yea, it weepeth sore, And the tear cometh down mine eyes, For the flock of Jehovah hath been taken captive.

³³ And the pierced of Jehovah have been in that day, From the end of the earth even unto the end of the earth, They are not lamented, nor gathered, nor buried, For dung on the face of the ground they are. ³⁴ Howl, ye shepherds, and cry, And roll yourselves, ye honourable of the flock, For full have been your days, For slaughtering, and for your scatterings, And ye have fallen as a desirable vessel.

² She weepeth sore in the night, And her tear is on her cheeks, There is no comforter for her out of all her lovers, All her friends dealt treacherously by her, They have been to her for enemies.

¹⁶ For these I am weeping, My eye, my eye, is running down with waters, For, far from me hath been a comforter, Refreshing my soul, My sons have been desolate, For mighty hath been an enemy.

¹¹ Consumed by tears have been my eyes, Troubled have been my bowels, Poured out to the earth hath been my liver, For the breach of the daughter of my people; In infant and suckling being feeble, In the broad places of the city,

⁴⁸ Rivulets of water go down my eye, For the destruction of the daughter of my people.

³ Even dragons have drawn out the breast, They have suckled their young ones, The daughter of my people is become cruel, Like the ostriches in a wilderness.

⁶ And greater is the iniquity of the daughter of my people, Than the sin of Sodom, That was overturned as in a moment, And no hands were stayed on her.

¹⁰ The hands of merciful women have boiled their own children, They have been for food to them, In the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹⁶ And escaped away have their fugitives, And they have been on the mountains As doves of the valleys, All of them make a noising—each for his iniquity. ¹⁷ All the hands are feeble, and all knees go—waters. ¹⁸ And they have girded on sackcloth, And covered them hath trembling, And unto all faces is shame, And on all their heads—baldness.

³⁰ And have sounded for thee with their voice, And cry bitterly, and cause dust to go up on their heads, In ashes they do roll themselves. ³¹ And they have made for thee baldness, And they have girded on sackcloth, And they have wept for thee, In bitterness of soul—a bitter mourning.

¹⁰ And have turned your festivals to mourning, And all your songs to lamentation, And caused sackcloth to come up on all loins, And on every head—baldness, And made it as a mourning of an only one, And its latter end as a day of bitterness.

⁸ For this I lament and howl, I go spoiled and naked, I make a lamentation like dragons, And a mourning like daughters of an ostrich. ⁹ For mortal are her wounds, For it hath come unto Judah, It hath come to a gate of My people—to Jerusalem. ¹⁰ In Gath tell ye not—in Acco weep not, In Beth-Aphrah, in dust roll thyself.

¹⁰ And I have poured on the house of David, And on the inhabitant of Jerusalem, A spirit of grace and supplications, And they have looked unto Me whom they pierced, And they have mourned over it, Like a mourning over the only one, And they have been in bitterness for it, Like a bitterness over the first-born.

¹² and as he came nigh to the gate of the city, then, lo, one dead was being carried forth, an only son of his mother, and she a widow, and a great multitude of the city was with her.

⁹ be exceeding afflicted, and mourn, and weep, let your laughter to mourning be turned, and the joy to heaviness;

¹ Go, now, ye rich! weep, howling over your miseries that are coming upon you;

¹⁸ And I, lo, I have given thee this day for a fenced city, and for an iron pillar, and for brazen walls over all the land, to the kings of Judah, to its heads, to its priests, and to the people of the land;

⁷ Therefore, thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Lo, I am refining them, and have tried them, For how do I do because of the daughter of My people?

²⁰ And I have made thee to this people For a wall—brazen—fenced, And they have fought against thee, And they do not prevail against thee, For with thee am I to save thee, And to deliver thee—an affirmation of Jehovah,

⁸ `Lo, I have made thy face strong against their face, and thy forehead strong against their forehead. <sup>9</sup> As an adamant harder than a rock I have made thy forehead; thou dost not fear them, nor art thou affrighted before them, for a rebellious house are they.' <sup>10</sup> And He saith unto me, `Son of man, all My words, that I speak unto thee, receive with thy heart, and with thine ears hear;

⁴ Dost thou judge them? Dost thou judge, son of man? The abominations of their fathers cause them to know,

² `And thou, son of man, dost thou judge? dost thou judge the city of blood? then thou hast caused it to know all its abominations,

²⁰ Thou sittest, against thy brother thou speakest, Against a son of thy mother givest slander.

⁴ Ah, sinning nation, a people heavy with iniquity, A seed of evil doers, sons—corrupters! They have forsaken Jehovah, They have despised the Holy One of Israel, They have gone away backward. ⁵ Wherefore are ye stricken any more? Ye do add apostasy! Every head is become diseased, and every heart is sick.

⁶ Turn back to Him from whom sons of Israel Have deepened apostasy.

²³ And this people hath an apostate and rebellious heart, They have turned aside, and they go on.

³⁰ `Silver rejected,' they have called to them, For Jehovah hath kicked against them!

⁴ Each of his friend—beware ye, And on any brother, do not trust, For every brother doth utterly supplant, For every friend slanderously doth walk,

¹⁸ And they say, Come, And we devise against Jeremiah devices, For law doth not perish from the priest, Nor counsel from the wise, Nor the word from the prophet, Come, and we smite him with the tongue, And we do not attend to any of his words.

¹⁸ The house of Israel hath been to Me for dross, All of them are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, In the midst of a furnace—dross hath silver been, ¹⁹ Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because of your all becoming dross, Therefore, lo, I am gathering you unto the midst of Jerusalem, ²⁰ A gathering of silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, Unto the midst of a furnace—to blow on it fire, to melt it, So do I gather in Mine anger and in My fury, And I have let rest, and have melted you. ²¹ And I have heaped you up, And blown on you in the fire of My wrath, And ye have been melted in its midst. ²² As the melting of silver in the midst of a furnace, So are ye melted in its midst, And ye have known that I, Jehovah, I have poured out My fury upon you.'

¹⁸ and the nations were angry, and Thine anger did come, and the time of the dead, to be judged, and to give the reward to Thy servants, to the prophets, and to the saints, and to those fearing Thy name, to the small and to the great, and to destroy those who are destroying the land.'

² because true and righteous are His judgments, because He did judge the great whore who did corrupt the earth in her whoredom, and He did avenge the blood of His servants at her hand;'

³ A refining pot is for silver, and a furnace for gold, And the trier of hearts is Jehovah.

⁴ And I said, `For a vain thing I laboured, For emptiness and vanity my power I consumed, But my judgment is with Jehovah, And my wage with my God.

¹³ In thine uncleanness is wickedness, Because I have cleansed thee, And thou hast not been cleansed, From thine uncleanness thou art not cleansed again, Till I have caused My fury to rest on thee.

⁷ And My people are hanging in suspense, about My returning, And unto the Most High they do call, Together they exalt not.

⁹ And I have brought the third into fire, And refined them like a refining of silver, And have tried them like a trying of gold, It doth call in My name, and I answer it, I have said, `My people it is,' And it saith, `Jehovah is my God!'

² And who is bearing the day of his coming? And who is standing in his appearing? For he is as fire of a refiner, And as soap of a fuller. ³ And he hath sat, a refiner and purifier of silver, And he hath purified the sons of Levi, And hath refined them as gold and as silver, And they have been to Jehovah bringing nigh a present in righteousness.

⁷ that the proof of your faith—much more precious than of gold that is perishing, and through fire being approved—may be found to praise, and honour, and glory, in the revelation of Jesus Christ,

¹² Beloved, think it not strange at the fiery suffering among you that is coming to try you, as if a strange thing were happening to you,

¹¹⁹ Dross! Thou hast caused to cease All the wicked of the earth; Therefore I have loved Thy testimonies.

⁴ Take away dross from silver, And a vessel for the refiner goeth forth,

²² Thy silver hath become dross, Thy drink polluted with water.

²⁵ And I turn back My hand upon thee, And I refine as purity thy dross, And I turn aside all thy tin,

²⁹ Cut off thy crown, and cast it away, And lift up on high places lamentation, For Jehovah hath rejected, And He leaveth the generation of His wrath.

¹⁹ Hast Thou utterly rejected Judah? Zion hath Thy soul loathed? Wherefore hast Thou smitten us, And there is no healing to us? Looking for peace, and there is no good, And for a time of healing, and lo, terror.

²² For hast Thou utterly rejected us? Thou hast been wroth against us—exceedingly?

¹⁸ The house of Israel hath been to Me for dross, All of them are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, In the midst of a furnace—dross hath silver been, ¹⁹ Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because of your all becoming dross, Therefore, lo, I am gathering you unto the midst of Jerusalem,

¹⁷ Reject them doth my God, Because they have not hearkened to Him, And they are wanderers among nations!

¹³ `Ye are the salt of the land, but if the salt may lose savour, in what shall it be salted? for nothing is it good henceforth, except to be cast without, and to be trodden down by men.

¹ I say, then, Did God cast away His people? let it not be! for I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin: