Yirmiyahu - Chapter 6

1. Gather the sons of Benjamin from the midst of Jerusalem, and in Tekoa sound the shofar, and over Beth-hakerem raise a standard, for evil is visible from the north and a great calamity.

2. The comely and the delicate one have I destroyed, O daughter of Zion.

3. Shepherds and their flocks shall come to her, they have pitched tents around her, they feed bare, each one in his place.

4. Prepare war against her, arise and let us go up at noontime; woe is to us for the day has passed, for the shadows of evening are stretched out.

5. Arise and let us go up at night and let us destroy her palaces.

6. For so says the Lord of Hosts: Cut the trees and cast on Jerusalem a siege mound; that is the city whose sins have been visited upon her, everywhere there is oppression in its midst.

7. As a well lets its water flow, so has she let her evil flow; violence and spoil is heard therein before Me continually; sickness and wounds.

8. Be corrected, O Jerusalem, lest My soul be alienated from you; lest I make you a desolation, a land uninhabited.

9. So says the Lord of Hosts: They shall thoroughly glean like a vine the remnant of Israel; return your hand as a vintager over the branches.

10. To whom shall I speak and warn that they shall hearken? Behold, their ear is clogged, and they cannot listen; behold, the word of the Lord was a disgrace to them, they desire it not.

11. Therefore, I am full of the fury of the Lord, I am weary of containing it, to pour it out upon the babes in the street and upon the assembly of young men together, for a man with a woman shall be seized, an old man with one full of days.

12. And their houses shall be turned over to others, fields and wives together, for I will stretch out My hand over the inhabitants of the land, says the Lord.

13. For, from their smallest to their greatest, they all commit robbery, and from prophet to priest they all deal falsely.

14. And they healed the breach of My people easily, saying, "Peace, peace," but there is no peace.

15. They shall be put to shame since they have committed abomination. Neither are they ashamed nor do they know to feel disgrace. They will, therefore, fall among the slain; at the time I have visited upon them, they will stumble, says the Lord.

16. So says the Lord: stand on the roads and see, and ask of the paths of old, which is the good way, and go on it, and find rest for your soul, and they said, "We will not go."

17. And I have stationed lookouts over you. Hearken to the sound of the shofar, and they said, "We will not hearken."

18. Therefore, hearken, O nations, and know, O congregation, what is within them.

19. Hearken, O earth, behold, I bring evil to this people, the fruit of their thoughts, for they did not hearken to My words, and they rejected My instruction.

20. Why do I need the frankincense that comes from Sheba, and the good cane from a distant country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not pleasant to Me.

21. Therefore, so says the Lord: Behold, I give this people stumblingblocks, and both fathers and sons together shall stumble upon them, a neighbor and his companion, and they shall perish.

22. So says the Lord: Behold, a people is coming from the northland, and a great nation will be aroused from the ends of the earth.

23. They will grasp bow and spear, they are cruel and have no compassion; their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, equipped like a man for war, upon you, O daughter of Zion.

24. We have heard his report, our hands have become feeble, trouble has grasped us, and pain, as a woman in travail.

25. Go not forth into the field, and on the road do not go, for the enemy has a sword; there is fear all around.

26. O daughter of My people, gird yourself with sackcloth and roll in ashes; make yourself a mourning [as] for an only child, a bitter lamentation, for suddenly the plunderer will come upon us.

27. I have made you the strong one and the fortress of My people, and you shall know and test their way.

28. They are all extremely perverse, going tale bearing [like] copper and iron; they are all destructive.

29. The bellows is heated from the fire, the lead is consumed; in vain does the founder refine, and the wicked ones have not been separated.

30. Refuse silver have men called them, for the Lord has rejected them.