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JEREMIAH

The Call of Jeremiah

THE words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah,

1 of the priests that were in Anathoth in the

land of Benjamin, 2 to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.

4 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying:

5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee,

And before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee;

I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations.

6 Then said I: 'Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child.' 7 But the LORD said

unto me:

Say not: I am a child;

For to whomsoever I shall send thee thou

shalt go,

And whatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt speak.

8 Be not afraid of them;

For I am with thee to deliver thee,

Saith the LORD.

9 Then the LORD put forth His hand, and touched my mouth; and the LORD said unto me:

Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth; 10 See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms,

To root out and to pull down,

And to destroy and to overthrow;
To build, and to plant.

11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying: 'Jeremiah, what seest thou?' And I said: 'I see a rod of an almond-tree.' 12 Then said the LORD unto me: "Thou hast well seen; for I watch over My word to perform it.'

13 And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying: 'What seest thou?' And I said: ‘I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is from the north.' 14 Then the LORD said unto me: 'Out of the north the evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. 15 For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah. 16 And I will utter My judgments against them touching all their wickedness; in that they have forsaken Me, and have offered unto other gods, and worshipped the work of their own hands. 17 Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee; be not dismayed at them, lest I dismay thee before them. 18 For, behold, I have made thee this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof,

and against the people of the land. 19 And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.'

9

Moral Corruption and Its Results

Oh that I were in the wilderness,

In a lodging-place of wayfaring men,
That I might leave my people,

And go from them!

For they are all adulterers,

An assembly of treacherous men.

2 And they bend their tongue, their bow of falsehood;

And they are grown mighty in the land, but not for truth;

For they proceed from evil to evil,

And Me they know not,

Saith the LORD.

3 Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, And trust ye not in any brother;

For every brother acteth subtly,

And every neighbour goeth about with slanders.

4 And they deceive every one his neighbour, And truth they speak not;

They have taught their tongue to speak lies, They weary themselves to commit iniquity. 5 Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse to know Me, Saith the LORD.

6 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will smelt them, and try them;

For how else should I do,

Because of the daughter of My people? 7 Their tongue is a sharpened arrow, It speaketh deceit;

One speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth,

But in his heart he layeth wait for him. 8 Shall I not punish them for these things? Saith the LORD;

Shall not My soul be avenged

On such a nation as this?

9 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing,

And for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation,

Because they are burned up, so that none
passeth through.

And they hear not the voice of the cattle;
Both the fowl of the heavens and the beast
Are fled, and gone.

10 And I will make Jerusalem heaps,

A lair of jackals;

And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,

Without an inhabitant.

11 Who is the wise man, that he may understand this?

And who is he to whom the mouth of the
LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it?
Wherefore is the land perished

And laid waste like a wilderness, so that
none passeth through?

12 And the LORD saith:

Because they have forsaken My law which I

set before them.

And have not hearkened to My voice, neither walked therein;

13 But have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart,

And after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them.

14 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:

Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood,

And give them water of gall to drink.

15 I will scatter them also among the nations, Whom neither they nor their fathers have known;

And I will send the sword after them,
Till I have consumed them.

God's Nature ·

22 Thus saith the LORD:

Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Neither let the mighty man glory in his might,

Let not the rich man glory in his riches; 23 But let him that glorieth glory in this,

That he understandeth, and knoweth Me,
That I am the LORD who exercise mercy,
Justice, and righteousness, in the earth;
For in these things I delight,

Saith the LORD.

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