LEB JER Chapter 4

An Invasion from the North

• 5 “Blow a horn through the land,
• [fn] and say,
  • ‘Be gathered and let us go into the fortified cities.’
  • 6  bring yourselves to safety; you must not remain standing,
• for I am bringing evil from the north,
  • and a great destruction.
  • 7  and a destroyer of nations has set out.
• He has gone out from his place to make your land as a horror,
  • your cities will go to ruin[fn] inhabitant.
  • 8 with sackcloth,[fn] lament and wail, for[fn] of Yahweh has not turned back from us.
• 9 [fn] Yahweh, “the heart of the king and the heart of the officials will be destroyed,
  • and the priests will be appalled,
  • and the prophets will be astonished.”

10 Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh, surely you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘It will be peace for you,’ while the sword reaches up to the throat.”

• 11 “[fn] in the desert,[fn]
• [fn] the daughter of my people,
  • not to winnow and not to cleanse,
  • 12 [fn] these will come for me, now also I speak judgments against them.”
  • 13  and his chariots are like the whirlwind,
• his horses are swifter than eagles,
  • woe to us, for we are devastated.
  • 14 O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved.
• [fn] will your thoughts of mischief
  • dwell in your inner part?
  • 15 is declaring from Dan, and is proclaiming disaster from the mountain of Ephraim.
  • 16  Proclaim against Jerusalem,
• ‘Besiegers are coming[fn]
  • and they raise their voice against the cities of Judah.’
  • 17  because she has rebelled against me,”[fn] Yahweh.
  • 18  because of your way and your deeds.
• This is your doom, for it is bitter,
  • yes, it has reached up to your heart.”
  • 19  The walls of my heart!
• My heart is restless within me, I cannot keep silent,
  • for I hear in my inner self the sound of a horn, the alarm of war.
  • 20  for all of the land is devastated.
• Suddenly my tents are devastated,
  • my tent curtains in a moment.
  • 21 the banner, and hear the sound of a horn?
  • 22 are foolish, they have not known me.
• They are foolish children,
  • and they do not have insight.
• They are skillful at doing evil,
  • and they do not know how to do good.”
  • 23  and to the heavens, and they were without their light.
  • 24  and all of the hills were jolted to and fro.
  • 25  and all of the birds[fn] of the sky had fled.
  • 26 was a desert,[fn] and all of its cities were ruined before Yahweh,
  • before the face of[fn]
  • 27  yet I will not make a complete desolation.
  • 28  and the heavens above will become dark.
• Because I have spoken, I have planned,
  • and I have not relented, and I will not turn back from it.”
  • 29 [fn] every town flees, they enter in the thickets and among the rocks they climb.
• Every town is forsaken,
  • and there is no person who lives in them.
  • 30 O devastated one, what do you do, that you put on crimson,
• that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,
  • that you make your eyes look bigger with the eye make-up?
• In vain you beautify yourself.
  • Your lovers reject you;
  • they seek your life.
  • 31  anxiety like a woman who bears her first child,
• the voice of the daughter of Zion.
  • She is gasping for breath,
  • she is spreading out her hands:
• “Woe is me, for I am becoming tired[fn] before killers.”