Jeremiah 4 — Legacy Standard Bible

Yahweh Calls Israel to Return to Him

4“If you will ^areturn, O Israel,” declares Yahweh,“Then you should return to Me.And ^bif you will put away your detested things from My presenceAnd will not waver²And you will ^aswear, ‘As Yahweh lives,’^bIn truth, in justice, and in righteousness;Then the ^cnations will ¹be blessed in Him,And ^din Him they will boast.”

³For thus says Yahweh to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, “¹^,^aBreak up your fallow ground,And ^bdo not sow among thorns.

⁴“^aCircumcise yourselves to YahwehAnd remove the foreskins of your heart,Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,Lest My ^bwrath go forth like fireAnd burn with ^cnone to quench itBecause of the evil of your deeds.”

Evil from the North

⁵Declare in Judah and make it heard in Jerusalem and say,“^aBlow the trumpet in the land;Call out, make your voice full, and say,‘^bGather yourselves, and let us goInto the fortified cities.’⁶“Lift up a ^astandard toward Zion!Seek safety, do not stand still,For I am bringing ^bevil from the north,And great destruction.⁷“A ^alion has gone up from his thicket,And a ^bdestroyer of nations has set out;He has gone out from his placeTo ^cmake your land a desolation.Your cities will be turned into ruinsWithout inhabitant.⁸“For this, ^aI gird myself with sackcloth,Lament and wail;For the ^bburning anger of YahwehHas not turned back from us.”

⁹“It will be in that day,” declares Yahweh, “that the ^aheart of the king and the heart of the princes will perish; and the priests will be appalled, and the ^bprophets will be astonished.”

¹⁰Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Surely You have utterly ^adeceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘^bYou will have peace’; whereas a sword touches the ¹throat.”

¹¹In that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A ¹^,^ascorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness along the way of the daughter of My people—not to winnow and not to cleanse, ¹²a wind too full for these things—will come ¹for My purpose; now I will also speak judgments against them.

¹³“Behold, he ^agoes up like clouds,And his ^bchariots like the whirlwind;His horses are ^cswifter than eagles.Woe to us, for ^dwe are devastated!”¹⁴Wash your heart from evil, O Jerusalem,That you may be saved.How long will your ^awicked thoughtsLodge within you?¹⁵For a voice declares from ^aDan,And makes wickedness heard from Mount Ephraim.¹⁶“Make mention of it to the nations, saying, ‘Behold!’Make it heard over Jerusalem,‘Besiegers come from a ^afar country,And ^bgive forth their voices against the cities of Judah.¹⁷‘Like watchmen of a field they are ^aagainst her round aboutBecause she has ^brebelled against Me,’ declares Yahweh.¹⁸“Your ^aways and your deedsHave done these things to you.This is your evil. How ^bbitter!How it has touched your heart!”

Anguish over Judah’s Desolation

¹⁹^aMy ¹soul, my ²soul! I am in anguish! ³Oh, my heart!My ^bheart is pounding in me;I cannot be silentBecause ⁴you have heard, O my soul,The ^csound of the trumpet,The shout of war.²⁰^aDestruction upon destruction is called out,For the ^bwhole land is devastated;Suddenly my ^ctents are devastated,My curtains in an instant.²¹How long must I see the standardAnd hear the sound of the trumpet?²²“^aFor My people are ignorant fools,They know Me not;They are simpleminded childrenAnd have no understanding.They are wise to ^bdo evil,But to do good they do not know.”²³I saw on the earth, and behold, it was ¹^,^aformless and void;And to the heavens, and they had no light.²⁴I saw on the mountains, and behold, they were ^aquaking,And all the hills ¹moved to and fro.²⁵I saw, and behold, there was no man,And all the ^abirds of the sky had fled.²⁶I saw, and behold, ¹the ^afruitful orchard was a wilderness,And all its cities were torn downBefore Yahweh, before His burning anger.

²⁷For thus says Yahweh, “The ^awhole land shall be a desolation,Yet I will ^bnot execute a complete destruction.

²⁸“For this the ^aearth shall mournAnd the ^bheavens above be darkBecause I have ^cspoken; I have purposed,And I will not ¹relent, nor will I turn from it.”²⁹At the sound of the horseman and bowman ^aevery city flees;They ^bgo into the thickets and climb up among the rocks;^cEvery city is forsaken,And no man inhabits them.³⁰And you, O devastated one, ^awhat will you do?Although you dress in scarlet,Although you decorate yourself with ornaments of gold,Although you ^benlarge your eyes with paint,In vain you make yourself beautiful.Your ¹^,^clovers despise you;They seek your life.³¹For I heard a sound as of a woman in labor pains,The distress as of one giving birth to her first child,The sound of the daughter of Zion ^agasping for breath,^bStretching out her ¹hands, saying,“Ah, woe is me, for my soul faints before murderers.”