Do not go out into the field And do not walk on the road, For the enemy has a sword, Terror is on every side.
O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth And roll in ashes; Mourn as for an only son, A lamentation most bitter. For suddenly the destroyer Will come upon us.
“I have made you an assayer and a tester among My people, That you may know and assay their way.”
All of them are stubbornly rebellious, Going about as a talebearer. They are bronze and iron; They, all of them, are corrupt.
For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor,
Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” declares the LORD.
‘Cut off your hair and cast it away, And take up a lamentation on the bare heights; For the LORD has rejected and forsaken The generation of His wrath.’
Then I will make to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land will become a ruin.
“I have listened and heard, They have spoken what is not right; No man repented of his wickedness, Saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turned to his course, Like a horse charging into the battle.
“How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the law of the LORD is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes Has made it into a lie.
We waited for peace, but no good came; For a time of healing, but behold, terror!
Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land: “Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not within her?” “Why have they provoked Me with their graven images, with foreign idols?”
Oh that my head were waters And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night For the slain of the daughter of my people!
Oh that I had in the desert A wayfarers’ lodging place; That I might leave my people And go from them! For all of them are adulterers, An assembly of treacherous men.
“Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor, And do not trust any brother; Because every brother deals craftily, And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.
“Their tongue is a deadly arrow; It speaks deceit; With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, But inwardly he sets an ambush for him.
“Shall I not punish them for these things?” declares the LORD. “On a nation such as this Shall I not avenge Myself?
“For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing, And for the pastures of the wilderness a dirge, Because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, And the lowing of the cattle is not heard; Both the birds of the sky and the beasts have fled; they are gone.
“I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, A haunt of jackals; And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
Who is the wise man that may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through?
“Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us, That our eyes may shed tears And our eyelids flow with water.
“For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion, ‘How are we ruined! We are put to great shame, For we have left the land, Because they have cast down our dwellings.’”
Now hear the word of the LORD, O you women, And let your ear receive the word of His mouth; Teach your daughters wailing, And everyone her neighbor a dirge.
Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches;
For the customs of the peoples are delusion; Because it is wood cut from the forest, The work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool.
“Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, And they cannot speak; They must be carried, Because they cannot walk! Do not fear them, For they can do no harm, Nor can they do any good.”
Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, And gold from Uphaz, The work of a craftsman and of the hands of a goldsmith; Violet and purple are their clothing; They are all the work of skilled men.
When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, And He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain, And brings out the wind from His storehouses.
They are worthless, a work of mockery; In the time of their punishment they will perish.
Woe is me, because of my injury! My wound is incurable. But I said, “Truly this is a sickness, And I must bear it.”
The sound of a report! Behold, it comes-- A great commotion out of the land of the north-- To make the cities of Judah A desolation, a haunt of jackals.
I know, O LORD, that a man’s way is not in himself, Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.
in order to confirm the oath which I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day.”’” Then I said, “Amen, O LORD.”
Then the LORD said to me, “A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
“Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not listen when they call to Me because of their disaster.
The LORD called your name, “A green olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form”; With the noise of a great tumult He has kindled fire on it, And its branches are worthless.
But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; And I did not know that they had devised plots against me, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, And let us cut him off from the land of the living, That his name be remembered no more.”
and a remnant will not be left to them, for I will bring disaster on the men of Anathoth--the year of their punishment.”
But You know me, O LORD; You see me; And You examine my heart’s attitude toward You. Drag them off like sheep for the slaughter And set them apart for a day of carnage!
“If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, Then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, How will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?
“My inheritance has become to Me Like a lion in the forest; She has roared against Me; Therefore I have come to hate her.
“Is My inheritance like a speckled bird of prey to Me? Are the birds of prey against her on every side? Go, gather all the beasts of the field, Bring them to devour!
“Many shepherds have ruined My vineyard, They have trampled down My field; They have made My pleasant field A desolate wilderness.
“It has been made a desolation, Desolate, it mourns before Me; The whole land has been made desolate, Because no man lays it to heart.
“On all the bare heights in the wilderness Destroyers have come, For a sword of the LORD is devouring From one end of the land even to the other; There is no peace for anyone.
Thus the LORD said to me, “Go and buy yourself a linen waistband and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water.”
Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time, saying,
“Take the waistband that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a crevice of the rock.”
For as the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole household of Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to Me,’ declares the LORD, ‘that they might be for Me a people, for renown, for praise and for glory; but they did not listen.’
Say to the king and the queen mother, “Take a lowly seat, For your beautiful crown Has come down from your head.”
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995
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