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Idolatry Has Brought Ruin on Israel

10Hear the word that the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. ²Thus says the Lord:
Do not learn the way of the nations,
   or be dismayed at the signs of the heavens;
   for the nations are dismayed at them.
³ For the customs of the peoples are false:
a tree from the forest is cut down,
   and worked with an axe by the hands of an artisan;
⁴ people deck it with silver and gold;
   they fasten it with hammer and nails
   so that it cannot move.
⁵ Their idols^* are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,
   and they cannot speak;
they have to be carried,
   for they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them,
   for they cannot do evil,
   nor is it in them to do good.

⁶ There is none like you, O Lord;
   you are great, and your name is great in might.
⁷ Who would not fear you, O King of the nations?
   For that is your due;
among all the wise ones of the nations
   and in all their kingdoms
   there is no one like you.
⁸ They are both stupid and foolish;
   the instruction given by idols
   is no better than wood!^*
9 Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish,
   and gold from Uphaz.
They are the work of the artisan and of the hands of the goldsmith;
   their clothing is blue and purple;
   they are all the product of skilled workers.
¹⁰ But the Lord is the true God;
   he is the living God and the everlasting King.
At his wrath the earth quakes,
   and the nations cannot endure his indignation.

11 Thus shall you say to them: The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.^*

¹² It is he who made the earth by his power,
   who established the world by his wisdom,
   and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
¹³ When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
   and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightnings for the rain,
   and he brings out the wind from his storehouses.
¹⁴ Everyone is stupid and without knowledge;
   goldsmiths are all put to shame by their idols;
for their images are false,
   and there is no breath in them.
¹⁵ They are worthless, a work of delusion;
   at the time of their punishment they shall perish.
¹⁶ Not like these is the Lord,^* the portion of Jacob,
   for he is the one who formed all things,
and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance;
   the Lord of hosts is his name.

The Coming Exile

¹⁷ Gather up your bundle from the ground,
   O you who live under siege!
¹⁸ For thus says the Lord:
I am going to fling away the inhabitants of the land
   at this time,
and I will bring distress on them,
   so that they shall feel it.

¹⁹ Woe is me because of my hurt!
   My wound is severe.
But I said, ‘Truly this is my punishment,
   and I must bear it.’
²⁰ My tent is destroyed,
   and all my cords are broken;
my children have gone from me,
   and they are no more;
there is no one to spread my tent again,
   and to set up my curtains.
²¹ For the shepherds are stupid,
   and do not inquire of the Lord;
therefore they have not prospered,
   and all their flock is scattered.

²² Hear, a noise! Listen, it is coming—
   a great commotion from the land of the north
to make the cities of Judah a desolation,
   a lair of jackals.

²³ I know, O Lord, that the way of human beings is not in their control,
   that mortals as they walk cannot direct their steps.
²⁴ Correct me, O Lord, but in just measure;
   not in your anger, or you will bring me to nothing.

²⁵ Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you,
   and on the peoples that do not call on your name;
for they have devoured Jacob;
   they have devoured him and consumed him,
   and have laid waste his habitation.

Israel and Judah Have Broken the Covenant

11The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ³You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed be anyone who does not heed the words of this covenant, ⁴which I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron-smelter, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God, ⁵that I may perform the oath that I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day. Then I answered, ‘So be it, Lord.’

6 And the Lord said to me: Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them. ⁷For I solemnly warned your ancestors when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice. ⁸Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of an evil will. So I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.

9 And the Lord said to me: Conspiracy exists among the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁰They have turned back to the iniquities of their ancestors of old, who refused to heed my words; they have gone after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant that I made with their ancestors. ¹¹Therefore, thus says the Lord, assuredly I am going to bring disaster upon them that they cannot escape; though they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. ¹²Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they make offerings, but they will never save them in the time of their trouble. ¹³For your gods have become as many as your towns, O Judah; and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars to shame that you have set up, altars to make offerings to Baal.

14 As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble. ¹⁵What right has my beloved in my house, when she has done vile deeds? Can vows^* and sacrificial flesh avert your doom? Can you then exult? ¹⁶The Lord once called you, ‘A green olive tree, fair with goodly fruit’; but with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed. ¹⁷The Lord of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, provoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal.

Jeremiah’s Life Threatened

¹⁸ It was the Lord who made it known to me, and I knew;
   then you showed me their evil deeds.
¹⁹ But I was like a gentle lamb
   led to the slaughter.
And I did not know it was against me
   that they devised schemes, saying,
‘Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,
   let us cut him off from the land of the living,
   so that his name will no longer be remembered!’
²⁰ But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously,
   who try the heart and the mind,
let me see your retribution upon them,
   for to you I have committed my cause.

21 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the people of Anathoth, who seek your life, and say, ‘You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord, or you will die by our hand’— ²²therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: I am going to punish them; the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine; ²³and not even a remnant shall be left of them. For I will bring disaster upon the people of Anathoth, the year of their punishment.

Jeremiah Complains to God

12You will be in the right, O Lord,
   when I lay charges against you;
   but let me put my case to you.
Why does the way of the guilty prosper?
   Why do all who are treacherous thrive?
² You plant them, and they take root;
   they grow and bring forth fruit;
you are near in their mouths
   yet far from their hearts.
³ But you, O Lord, know me;
   You see me and test me—my heart is with you.
Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter,
   and set them apart for the day of slaughter.
⁴ How long will the land mourn,
   and the grass of every field wither?
For the wickedness of those who live in it
   the animals and the birds are swept away,
   and because people said, ‘He is blind to our ways.’^*

God Replies to Jeremiah

⁵ If you have raced with foot-runners and they have wearied you,
   how will you compete with horses?
And if in a safe land you fall down,
   how will you fare in the thickets of the Jordan?
⁶ For even your kinsfolk and your own family,
   even they have dealt treacherously with you;
   they are in full cry after you;
do not believe them,
   though they speak friendly words to you.

⁷ I have forsaken my house,
   I have abandoned my heritage;
I have given the beloved of my heart
   into the hands of her enemies.
⁸ My heritage has become to me
   like a lion in the forest;
she has lifted up her voice against me—
   therefore I hate her.
⁹ Is the hyena greedy^* for my heritage at my command?
   Are the birds of prey all around her?
Go, assemble all the wild animals;
   bring them to devour her.
¹⁰ Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard,
   they have trampled down my portion,
they have made my pleasant portion
   a desolate wilderness.
¹¹ They have made it a desolation;
   desolate, it mourns to me.
The whole land is made desolate,
   but no one lays it to heart.
¹² Upon all the bare heights^* in the desert
   spoilers have come;
for the sword of the Lord devours
   from one end of the land to the other;
   no one shall be safe.
¹³ They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns,
   they have tired themselves out but profit nothing.
They shall be ashamed of their^* harvests
   because of the fierce anger of the Lord.

14 Thus says the Lord concerning all my evil neighbours who touch the heritage that I have given my people Israel to inherit: I am about to pluck them up from their land, and I will pluck up the house of Judah from among them. ¹⁵And after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again to their heritage and to their land, every one of them. ¹⁶And then, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, ‘As the Lord lives’, as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people. ¹⁷But if any nation will not listen, then I will completely uproot it and destroy it, says the Lord.