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UST by section JER 6:1

⌂ ← JER 6:1–6:30 → ║ ═ ©

Jeremiah 6

6 You people in Jerusalem who are from the tribe of Benjamin,

flee from this city!

Blow the trumpets in the city of Tekoa south of Jerusalem!

Send up a smoke signal in the town of Beth Hakerem

to warn the people of the coming danger!

A powerful army will come from the north,

and they will cause great destruction.

2 Jerusalem is like a beautiful and delicate woman.

3 Enemy kings, who are like the shepherds of foreign people groups, will come to Jerusalem with their armies, who are like their flocks and set up their tents around the city.

Then each king will choose a part of the city for his soldiers to destroy as shepherds divide their pastures for their flocks of sheep to graze in.

4 The kings will tell their troops,

“Get ready for the battle by making the necessary sacrifices.

We should attack them before noontime.

But if we arrive there late in the afternoon, when the shadows are becoming long,

5 we will attack them at night

and tear down their fortresses.’ ”

6 Yahweh, the commander of the armies of angels, says this,

“I will command those soldiers to cut down the trees outside Jerusalem

and to build dirt ramps up to the top of the city walls so that they can enter Jerusalem.

This city must be punished

because the people who live there continually oppress others.

7 Its people keep doing wicked deeds,

just as a well keeps producing water.

I hear within Jerusalem the noise people doing violent and oppressive actions.

I continually see people who are suffering and wounded.

8 Pay attention to my warning, you people of Jerusalem,

because if you do not listen, I will reject you

and cause your land to become desolate,

a land where no one lives.”

9 Yahweh, the commander of the angel armies, also says this:

“I will tell your enemies to cause your country to become as desolate as a vineyard from which all the grapes have been completely stripped from the vines.

Their soldiers will seize the possessions of those who remain in Israel after the others have been exiled

like farmers go to the vines again to pick any grapes that were not picked.

10 Then I said, “If I speak to the Israelite people to warn them, no one would listen to me.

Certainly, the Israelite people are very stubborn and they refuse to pay attention!

Certainly, they scorn the message Yahweh gave me to tell them;

they would not be happy to receive it.”

11 So now I am extremely angry, like Yahweh is angry,

and I cannot restrain it any longer.”

Yahweh said to me,

“Tell everyone that you are very angry with them.

Tell the children in the streets and the young men who gather together.

Tell the men and their wives that Yahweh is angry with them also,

and tell the very old people.

12 Tell the men that I will give their houses to their enemies,

and I will give their property and their wives to them, also,

when I punish the people who live in this land!

This will surely happen because Yahweh has said it.

13 Everyone is trying to get money by tricking others,

from the least important people to the most important people.

Even the prophets and the priests are trying to deceive people to get money.

14 They act as though the sins of my people are like small wounds that they do not need to put bandages on.

They tell the people that everything will go well with them, but that is not true; things will not go well for them.

15 They should be ashamed about the disgusting things that they do,

but they are not ashamed at all.

They have become so accustomed to sinning that they are not remorseful.

So, they also will be among those who will be killed.

They will be destroyed when I punish them.”

This is what Yahweh says.

16 This is also what Yahweh said to the Israelite people,

“Stand at the crossroads and look at the people who pass by.

Ask them what was the good behavior that their ancestors had long ago.

And when they tell you how their ancestors behaved, behave that way.

If you do that, you feel peaceful in your inner beings.”

But you replied, ‘No we do not want to do that!’

17 I sent my prophets who were like watchmen.

I, Yahweh, told you to listen carefully to my warning which is like the warning city watchmen give when they blow trumpets to warn the people of the city that enemies are approaching,

but you said, ‘No, we do not want to listen.’

18 Therefore, you people in the other nations, listen to this:

Pay attention to what is going to happen to the Israelite people.

19 Listen, all of you people of the earth!

I am going to cause disasters to happen to the Israelite people.

I will do this to them because they have refused to obey what I commanded them.

They have refused to obey my laws.

20 You Israelite people, when you burn frankincense that came from the far away land of Sheba

and when you offer to me sweet-smelling anointing oil that came from far away,

I will not be pleased with your sacrifices.

I will not accept the sacrifices that are completely burned on the altar;

I am not pleased with any of your sacrifices.

21 Therefore, I, Yahweh, will summon enemy armies to attack my people so that it will be as if I was putting obstacles on the roads on which my people travel.

These invading armies will strike men and their sons and neighbors and friends so that they all fall over and die as if they had stumbled over obstacles in their path.

Everyone will die.”

22 Yahweh also says this,

“You will see an army marching toward you from the north.

The army of a great nation very far away is preparing to attack you.

23 They have bows and arrows and spears;

they are cruel, and do not act mercifully to anyone.

As they ride along on their horses,

the horses’ feet sound like the roaring of the ocean waves;

they are on horses and are riding in battle formation

to attack you people of Jerusalem.”

24 The people of Jerusalem say,

“We have heard reports about the enemy;

so we are very frightened, with the result that we feel weak.

We are very afraid, and worried,

like women who are about to give birth to babies.

25 So one person says to another, ‘Do not go out into the fields! Do not go on the roads,

because the enemy soldiers will attack you with their swords and they are everywhere;

they are coming from all directions, and we are extremely afraid.’ ”

26 So I say,

“My dear people, put on rough textured clothes and sit in ashes

to show how much you are grieving over the many sinful things you have done.

Mourn loudly and cry very much,

as parents would cry if their only son died.

For destroying armies will attack you suddenly.”

27 Then Yahweh said to me,

“Jeremiah, I have caused you to become to my people like someone who heats metal very hot to completely burn the impurities.

You will examine my people’s behavior.

28 You will find out that they are all stubborn rebels,

who slander others.

Each of them is so unyielding in their inner being that it is as if their inner beings are hard like bronze or iron.

They do corrupt things.

29 A metalworker causes the bellows to blow very hard to make the fire very hot and he adds lead in with the un-purified silver he wishes to purify so that the lead will draw out and burn up with the impurities in the silver.

However, the warnings I gave the Israelites through you have been in vain. They have been like an unsuccessful attempt at purifying silver

because my words of warning have not caused you to stop doing evil things.

30 I, Yahweh, have rejected them;

I say that they are like worthless silver.”