The promises of the gospel Chap. iii. to the penitent. 23 But where are thy gods that thou hast] Judah feared not, but went and played the made thee? Let them arise, if they can save harlot also. thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah. 29 Wherefore will ye plead with me? Ye all have transgressed against me, saith the LORD. 30 In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword bath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. 310 generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? 9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. 10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD. 11 And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah. 12 Go and proclaim these words toward a land of darkness? Wherefore say my peo-the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding ple, We are lords; we will come no more Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause unto thee! mine anger to fall upon you: for I am mer32 Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a ciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep bride her attire? Yet my people have forgot-anger for ever. ten me days without number. 33 Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? Therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways. 34 Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these. 35 Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turu from me. Behold, 1 will plead with thee, because thou sayest, 1 have not sinned. 36 Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? Thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria. 37 Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head: for the LORD hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them. CHAP. III. 1 God's great mercy in Judah's vile whoredom. 12 The promises of the gospel to the penitent. THEY say. If a man put away his wife, and 13 Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the stran gers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD. 14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: 15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. 16 And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall gay no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: nei ther shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it: neither shall that be done any more. 17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations she go from him and become another shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the man's, shall he return unto her again? shall LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk not that land be greatly polluted? But thou any more after the imagination of their evil bast played the harlot with many lovers; yet heart. return again to me, saith the LORD. 18 In those days the house of Judah stall 2 Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, walk with the house of Israel, and they strall and see where thou hast not been lien with: come together out of the land of the nort In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the A-to the land that I have given for an inheritance rabian in the wilderness; and thou hast pol-unto your fathers. luted the land with thy whoredoms and with 19 But I said, How shall I put thee among thy wickedness. the children, and give thee a pleasant land, 3 Therefore the showers have been with- a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? And bolden, and there hath been no latter rain; I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and, and thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refu-shalt not turn away from me. 20 Surely as a wife treacherously depart sedst to be ashamed. 4 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto eth from her husband, so have ye dealt me, My father, thou art the guide of my treacherously with me, O house of Isravi, youth? saith the LORD. 5 Will he reserve his anger for ever? will 21 A voice was heard upon the high places; he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spo-weeping and supplications of the children of ken and done evil things as thou couldest. Israel: for they have perverted their way. 6 The LORD said also unto me, in the and they have forgotten the LORD their days of Josiah the king. Hast thou seen that God. which backsliding Israel hath done? She is 22 Return, ye backsliding children, and I gone up upon every high mountain, and un-will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come der every green tree, and there hath played unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God. the harlot. 23 Truly in vain is saivalion hoped for 7 And I said after she had done all these from the hills, and from the multitude of things, Turo thou unto me. But she returned mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. salvation of Israel. 8 And I saw, when for all the causes 24 For shame hath devoured the labour of whereby backsliding Israel committed adul-'our fathers from our youth; their flocks and tery I had put her away, and given her a their herds, their sons and their daughters. bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister! We lie down in our shame, and our Israel called by promises, JEREMIAH. and exhorted to repentance. confusion covereth us: for we have sinned these things unto thee; this is thy wickedagainst the LORD our God, we and our fa- ness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth thers, from our youth even unto this day, unto thine heart. and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God. CHAP. IV. 1 God calleth Israel by his promises: 3 he exhorteth Judah to repentance. IF thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove. 2 And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory. 3 For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. 4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. 5 Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, Gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities. 6 Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not. for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction. 7 The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste without an inhabitant. For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us. 19 My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. 20 Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment. 21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet ? 22 For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. 23 I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. 24 I beheld the mountains, and lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. 25 I beheld, and lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. 26 I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger. 27 For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end. 28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it. 29 The whole eity shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein. 30 And when thou art spoiled, what wilt 9 And it shall come to pass at that day, saith thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with the LORD, that the heart of the king shall pe-crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornarish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder. 10 Then said I, Ah, Lord God! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul. ments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life. 31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the 11 At that time shall it be said to this peo-daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, ple and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high that spreadeth her hands, saying, Wo is me places in the wilderness toward the daughter now! for my soul is wearied because of murof my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse, 12 Even a full wind from those places shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence against them. 13 Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind his horses are swifter than eagles. Wo unto us! for we are spoiled. 14 O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? 15 For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affiction from mount Ephraim. 16 Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah. 17 As keepers of a field are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the LORD. 19 Thy way and thy doings bave procured derers. CHAP. V. The judgments of God upon the Jews for their manifold corruptions. RUN ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it. 2 And though they say, The Load liveth, surely they swear falsely. 30 LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved: thou hast consumed them, buck they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. 4 Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God. 5 I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. Their enemies encouraged. 23 But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. 24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, 6 Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall both the former and the latter, in his season: slay them, and a wolf of the evening shall he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their the harvest. cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased. 7 How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses. 8 They were as fed horses in the morning every one neighed after his neighbour's wife. 9 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 10 T Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD'S. 11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD. 12 They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: 13 And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them; thus shall it be done unto them. 14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, Behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. 15 Lo, I will, bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. 16 Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. 25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you. 26 For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. 27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. 28 They are waxeu fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. 29 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; 31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof? CHAP. VI. 1 The enemies sent against Judah, 4 encourage themselves. 6 God setteth them on work because of their sins. YE children of Benjamin, gather your lemn, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up sign of fire in Beth-baccerem : for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction. 2 I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman. 3 The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place. 4 Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let 17 And they shall eat up thine harvest, and us go up at noon. Wo unto us! for the day thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are should eat they shall eat up thy flocks and stretched out. thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and 5 Arise, and let us go by night, and let us thy fig-trees: they shall impoverish thy fen-destroy her palaces. ced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword. 18 Nevertheless, in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end with you. 19 And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land; so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours. 20 Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, 21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not : 6 For thus hath the LORD of hosts gaid, Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her. 7 As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds. 8 Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited. 9 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall throughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn back thine band as a grapegatherer into the baskets. 10 To whom shall I speak, and give warn22 Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: willing, that they may hear? Behold, their ear ye not tremble at my presence, which have is uncircumcised, and they cannot bearken: placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and reproach; they have no delight in it. though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? 11 Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and God's wrath proclaimed. JEREMIAH. Exhortations to repentance. CHAP. VII. upon the assembly of young men, together: for even the husband with the wife shall be 1 Jeremiah is sent to call for true repentance aken, the aged with him that is full of days. 8 he rejecleth their vain confidence. THE word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 13 And their houses shall be turned unto others, with thetr fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD. 13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. 14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. 2 Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD. 3 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, aud I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, are these. 15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at 5 For if ye throughly amend your ways and all ashamed, neither could they blush: there- your doings; if ye throughly execute judg fore they shall fall among them that fall: atment between a man and his neighbour; the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD. 16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, ard walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. 17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said. We will not hearken. 18 Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. 6 If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: 7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers for ever and ever. 8 Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. 9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; 19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their 10 And come and stand before me in this thoughts, because they have not hearkened house, which is called by my name, and say, unto my words, nor to my law, but reject-We are delivered to do all these abomina ed it. 20 To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet eane from a far country? Your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me. 21 Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumbling-blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and Iris friend shall perish. 22 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth. Lions? 11 Is this house which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD. 12 But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. 13 And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; 23 They shall lay hold on bow and spear; 14 Therefore will I do unto this house, they are cruel, and have no mercy; their which is called by my name, wherein ye roice roareth like the sea: and they ride upon trust, and unto the place which I gave to you horses, set in array as men for war against and to your fathers, as I have done to thee, O daughter of Zion. 24 We have heard the Same thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail. 25 Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side. Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim. 16 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee. 26 TO daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes; 17 Seest thou not what they do in the make thee mourning, as for an only son, most cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusabitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall sud-lem? denly come upon us. 27 I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way. 28 They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters. 29 The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away. 30 Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them. 18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. 19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? 20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GoD; Rehold, mine anger and my fury shall be pour ed out upon this place, upon man, and upon The Jews' idolatry. Chap. vill. Their impenitency. beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon sun, and the moon, and all the host of hea the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and ven, whom they have loved, and whom they shall not be quenched. 21 T Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh, 22 For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices: have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sough. and who? they have worshipped: they sha i not be g1thered, nor be buried; they shal be for dung upon the face of the earth. 3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the 23 But this thing commanded I them, say-places whither I have driven them, saith the ing. Obey my voice, and I will be your God, LORD of hosts. and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. 24 But they bearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. 4 ¶ Moreover, thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not" arise? Shall he turn away, and not return? 5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. 6 I hearkened and heard, but they spake 25 Since the day that your fathers came not aright no man repented him of his forth out of the land of Egypt, unto this wickedness, saying, What have I done? Every day, I have even sent unto you all my ser-one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth vants the prophets, daily rising up early and into the battle. sending them : 26 Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck they did worse than their fathers. 27 Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee. 7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD. 8 How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. 9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them! 28 But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth. 29 Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and 10 Therefore will I give their wives unto cast it away, and take up a lamentation on others, and their fields to them that shall inhigh places for the LORD hath rejected and herit them: for every one from the least forsaken the generation of his wrath. even unto the greatest is given to covetous30 For the children of Judah have doneness; from the prophet even unto the priest evil in my sight, saith the LoRD: they have every one dealeth falsely. set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it. 11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Pence. peace; when there is no peace. 31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of 12 Were they ashamed when they had comHinnom, to burn their sons and their daugh-mitted abomination? Nay, they were not at ters in the fire; which I conmanded them not, all ashamed, neither could they blush: there neither came it into my heart. fore shall they fall among them that fall: in 32 Therefore behold, the days come, saith the time of their visitation they shall be cast the LORD, that it shall no more be called To-down, saith the LORD. phet, nor, The valley of the son of Hinnom, 13 I will surely consume them, saith the but, The valley of slaughter. for they shall LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, bury in Tophet till there be no place. nor figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf shall fade: and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them. 33 And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away. 14 Why do we sit still? Assemble your selves, and let us enter into the defenced ci31 Then will I cause to cease from the cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD ties of Judah, and from the streets of Jeru-jour God hath put us to silence, and given us salem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of water of gall to drink, because we have sinned gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and against the LORD. the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate. CHAP. VIII. The Jews' calamity: 4 their impenitency up braided: 13 their judgment shewed: 13 their desperate estate bewailed. 15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble! 16 The snorting of his borses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones for they are come, and have devoured the land, At that time, saith the LORD, they shall and all that is in it; the city, and those that dah, and the bones of his princes, and the 17 For behold, I will send serpents, cocka bones of the priests, and the bones of the pro-trices, among you, which will not be charmed, phets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Je-and they shall bite you, saith the LORD. 18 When I would comfort myself agains: bring out the bones of the kings of Ju- dwell therein. rusalem, out of their graves: 3 And they shall spread them before the sorrow, my heart is faint in me. |