141 That which came as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah in regard to the drought : 2 "Judah mourns And her gates languish ; They sit on the ground in mourning , And the cry of Jerusalem has ascended . 3 "Their nobles have sent their servants for water ; They have come to the cisterns and found no water . They have returned with their vessels empty ; They have been put to shame and humiliated , And they cover their heads . 4 "Because the ground is cracked , For there has been no rain on the land ; The farmers have been put to shame , They have covered their heads . 5 "For even the doe in the field has given birth only to abandon her young, Because there is no grass . 6 "The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights ; They pant for air like jackals , Their eyes fail For there is no vegetation . 7 "Although our iniquities testify against us, O Lord , act for Your name's sake ! Truly our apostasies have been many , We have sinned against You. 8 "O Hope of Israel , Its Savior in time of distress , Why are You like a stranger in the land Or like a traveler who has pitched his tent for the night ? 9 "Why are You like a man dismayed , Like a mighty man who cannot e save ? Yet You are in our midst , O Lord , And we are called by Your name ; Do not forsake us!"
10 Thus says the Lord to this people , "Even so they have loved to wander ; they have not kept their feet in check . Therefore the Lord does not accept them; now He will remember their iniquity and call their sins to account ." 11 So the Lord said to me, " Do not pray for the welfare of this people . 12 "When they fast , I am not going to listen to their cry ; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering , I am not going to accept them. Rather I am going to make an end of them by the sword , famine and pestilence ." 13 But, "Ah , Lord GOD !" I said , "Look , the prophets are telling them, 'You will not see the sword nor will you have famine , but I will give you lasting peace in this place .' " 14 Then the Lord said to me, "The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name . I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision , divination , futility and the deception of their own minds . 15 "Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name , although it was not I who sent them-yet they keep saying , 'There will be no sword or famine in this land '- by sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end ! 16 "The people also to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because e of the famine and the sword ; and there will be no one to bury them-neither them, nor their wives , nor their sons , nor their daughters -for I will pour out their own wickedness on them.
17 "You will say this word to them, ' Let my eyes flow down with tears night and day , And let them not cease ; For the virgin daughter of my people has been crushed with a mighty blow , With a sorely infected wound . 18 'If I go out to the country , Behold , those slain with the sword ! Or if I enter the city , Behold , diseases of famine ! For both prophet and priest Have gone roving about in the land that they do not know .' " 19 Have You completely rejected Judah ? Or have You loathed Zion ? Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing ? We waited for peace , but nothing good came; And for a time of healing , but behold , terror ! 20 We know our wickedness , O Lord , The iniquity of our fathers , for we have sinned against You. 21 Do not despise us, for Your own name's sake ; Do not disgrace the throne of Your glory ; Remember and do not annul Your covenant with us. 22 Are there any among the idols of the nations who give rain ? Or can the heavens grant showers ? Is it not You, O Lord our God ? Therefore we hope in You, For You are the one who has done all these things .
151 Then the Lord said to me, "Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people ; send them away from My presence and let them go ! 2 "And it shall be that when they say to you, 'Where should we go ?' then you are to tell them, 'Thus says the Lord : "Those destined for death , to death ; And those destined for the sword , to the sword ; And those destined for famine , to famine ; And those destined for captivity , to captivity ."' 3 "I will appoint over them four kinds of doom," declares the Lord : "the sword to slay , the dogs to drag off, and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy . 4 "I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh , the son of Hezekiah , the king of Judah , for what he did in Jerusalem . 5 "Indeed , who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem , Or who will mourn for you, Or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare ? 6 "You who have forsaken Me," declares the Lord , "You keep going backward . So I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am tired of relenting ! 7 "I will winnow them with a winnowing fork At the gates of the land ; I will bereave them of children , I will destroy My people ; They did not repent of their ways . 8 "Their widows will be more numerous before Me Than the sand of the seas ; I will bring against them, against the mother of a young man , A destroyer at noonday ; I will suddenly bring down on her Anguish and dismay . 9 "She who bore seven sons pines away ; Her breathing is labored . Her sun has set while it was yet day ; She has been shamed and humiliated . So I will give over their survivors to the sword Before their enemies ," declares the Lord .
10 Woe to me, my mother , that you have borne me As a man of strife and a man of contention to all the land ! I have not lent , nor have men lent money to me, Yet everyone curses me. 11 The Lord said , "Surely e I will set you free for purposes of good ; Surely e I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you In a time of disaster and a time of distress . 12 "Can anyone smash iron , Iron from the north , or bronze ? 13 "Your wealth and your treasures I will give for booty without cost , Even for all your sins And within all your borders . 14 "Then I will cause your enemies to bring it Into a land you do not know ; For a fire has been kindled in My anger , It will burn upon you."
15 You who know , O Lord , Remember me, take notice of me, And take vengeance for me on my persecutors . Do not, in view of Your patience , take me away; Know that for Your sake I endure reproach . 16 Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart ; For I have been called by Your name , O Lord God of hosts . 17 I did not sit in the circle of merrymakers , Nor did I exult . Because e of Your hand upon me I sat alone , For You filled me with indignation . 18 Why has my pain been perpetual And my wound incurable , refusing to be healed ? Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream With water that is unreliable e ? 19 Therefore , thus says the Lord , " If you return , then I will restore you- Before Me you will stand ; And if you extract the precious from the worthless , You will become My spokesman . They for their part may turn to you, But as for you, you must not turn to them. 20 "Then I will make you to this people A fortified wall of bronze ; And though they fight against you, They will not prevail over you; For I am with you to save you And deliver you," declares the Lord . 21 "So I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked , And I will redeem you from the grasp of the violent ."
161 The word of the Lord also came to me saying , 2 "You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place ." 3 For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters born in this place , and concerning their mothers who bear them, and their fathers who beget them in this land : 4 "They will die of deadly diseases , they will not be lamented or buried ; they will be as dung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by sword and famine , and their carcasses will become food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth ." 5 For thus says the Lord , "Do not enter a house of mourning , or go to lament or to console them; for I have withdrawn My peace from this people ," declares the Lord , "My lovingkindness and compassion . 6 "Both great men and small will die in this land ; they will not be buried , they will not be lamented , nor will anyone gash himself or shave his head for them. 7 "Men will not break bread in mourning for them, to comfort anyone for the dead , nor give them a cup of consolation to drink for anyone's father or mother . 8 "Moreover you shall not go into a house of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink ." 9 For thus says the Lord of hosts , the God of Israel : "Behold , I am going to eliminate from this place , before your eyes and in your time , the voice of rejoicing and the voice of gladness , the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride .
10 "Now when you tell this people all these words , they will say to you, ' For what reason e has the Lord declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity , or what is our sin which we have committed against the Lord our God ?' 11 "Then you are to say to them, 'It is because e your forefathers have forsaken Me,' declares the Lord , 'and have followed e other gods and served them and bowed down to them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My law . 12 'You too have done evil , even more than your forefathers ; for behold , you are each one walking according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart , without listening to Me. 13 'So I will hurl you out of this land into the land which you have not known , neither you nor your fathers ; and there you will serve other gods day and night , for I will grant you no favor .'
14 " Therefore behold , days are coming ," declares the Lord , "when it will no longer be said , 'As the Lord lives , who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt ,' 15 but, 'As the Lord lives , who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where e He had banished them.' For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers . 16 "Behold , I am going to send for many fishermen ," declares the Lord , "and they will fish for them; and afterwards e I will send for many hunters , and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks . 17 " For My eyes are on all their ways ; they are not hidden from My face , nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes . 18 "I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their sin , because they have polluted My land ; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations ." 19 O Lord , my strength and my stronghold , And my refuge in the day of distress , To You the nations will come From the ends of the earth and say , "Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood , Futility and things of no profit ." 20 Can man make gods for himself? Yet they are not gods ! 21 "Therefore behold , I am going to make them know - This time I will make them know My power and My might ; And they shall know that My name is the Lord ."
171 The sin of Judah is written down with an iron stylus ; With a diamond point it is engraved upon the tablet of their heart And on the horns of their altars , 2 As they remember their children , So they remember their altars and their Asherim By green trees on the high hills . 3 O mountain of Mine in the countryside , I will give over your wealth and all your treasures for booty , Your high places for sin throughout your borders . 4 And you will, even of yourself, let go of your inheritance That I gave you; And I will make you serve your enemies In the land which you do not know ; For you have kindled a fire in My anger Which will burn forever e .
5 Thus says the Lord , " Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength , And whose heart turns away from the Lord . 6 "For he will be like a bush in the desert And will not see when prosperity comes , But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness , A land of salt without inhabitant . 7 " Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord And whose trust is the Lord . 8 "For he will be like a tree planted by the water , That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes ; But its leaves will be green , And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit . 9 "The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick ; Who can understand it? 10 "I, the Lord , search the heart , I test the mind , Even to give to each man according to his ways , According to the results of his deeds . 11 "As a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid , So is he who makes a fortune , but unjustly e ; In the midst of his days it will forsake him, And in the end he will be a fool ."
12 A glorious throne on high from the beginning Is the place of our sanctuary . 13 O Lord , the hope of Israel , All who forsake You will be put to shame . Those who turn away on earth will be written down , Because they have forsaken the fountain of living water , even the Lord . 14 Heal me, O Lord , and I will be healed ; Save me and I will be saved , For You are my praise . 15 Look , they keep saying to me, "Where is the word of the Lord ? Let it come now !" 16 But as for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after You, Nor have I longed for the woeful day ; You Yourself know that the utterance of my lips Was in Your presence . 17 Do not be a terror to me; You are my refuge in the day of disaster . 18 Let those who persecute me be put to shame , but as for me, let me not be put to shame ; Let them be dismayed , but let me not be dismayed . Bring on them a day of disaster , And crush them with twofold destruction !
19 Thus the Lord said to me, "Go and stand in the public gate , through which the kings of Judah come in and go out, as well as in all the gates of Jerusalem ; 20 and say to them, ' Listen to the word of the Lord , kings of Judah , and all Judah and all inhabitants of Jerusalem who come in through these gates : 21 'Thus says the Lord , " Take heed for yourselves , and do not carry any load on the sabbath day or bring anything in through the gates of Jerusalem . 22 "You shall not bring a load out of your houses on the sabbath day nor do any work , but keep the sabbath day holy , as I commanded your forefathers . 23 "Yet they did not listen or incline their ears , but stiffened their necks in order not to listen or take correction . 24 "But it will come about, if you listen attentively to Me," declares the Lord , "to bring no load in through the gates of this city on the sabbath day , but to keep the sabbath day holy by doing no e work on it, 25 then there will come in through the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David , riding in chariots and on horses , they and their princes , the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem , and this city will be inhabited forever . 26 "They will come in from the cities of Judah and from the environs of Jerusalem , from the land of Benjamin , from the lowland , from the hill country and from the Negev , bringing burnt offerings , sacrifices , grain offerings and incense , and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of the Lord . 27 "But if you do not listen to Me to keep the sabbath day holy by not carrying a load and coming in through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day , then I will kindle a fire in its gates and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem and not be quenched .""'