October
23rd Jeremiah
4 Return to The Lord
1:
If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if
thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt
thou not remove. 2:
And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in
righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in
him shall they glory. 3:
For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up
your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. 4:
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of
your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my
fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because
of the evil of your doings. 5:
Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the
trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble
yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities. 6:
Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring
evil from the north, and a great destruction. 7:
The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the
Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy
land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an
inhabitant. 8:
For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce
anger of the LORD is not turned back from us. 9:
And it shall come to pass at that day, saith the LORD, that the heart
of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the
priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder. 10:
Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this
people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword
reacheth unto the soul. 11:
At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry
wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my
people, not to fan, nor to cleanse, 12:
Even a full wind from those places shall come unto me: now also will
I give sentence against them. 13:
Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a
whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we
are spoiled. 14:
O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be
saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? 15:
For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount
Ephraim. 16:
Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem,
that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice
against the cities of Judah. 17:
As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she
hath been rebellious against me, saith the LORD. 18:
Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is
thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine
heart. 19:
My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a
noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, my
soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. 20:
Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled:
suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment. 21:
How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
22:
For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish
children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil,
but to do good they have no knowledge. 23:
I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the
heavens, and they had no light. 24:
I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills
moved lightly. 25:
I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens
were fled. 26:
I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the
cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by
his fierce anger. 27:
For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet
will I not make a full end. 28:
For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black:
because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent,
neither will I turn back from it. 29:
The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen;
they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city
shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein. 30:
And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest
thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of
gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou
make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy
life. 31:
For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as
of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter
of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying,
Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.
Jeremiah
5 The Sins of Jerusalem & Judah
1:
Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and
know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if
there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I
will pardon it. 2:
And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely. 3:
O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them,
but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have
refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than
a rock; they have refused to return. 4:
Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they
know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God. 5:
I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they
have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but
these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. 6:
Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the
evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities:
every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because
their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
7:
How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and
sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they
then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the
harlots' houses. 8:
They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his
neighbour's wife. 9:
Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my
soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 10:
Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take
away her battlements; for they are not the LORD's. 11:
For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very
treacherously against me, saith the LORD. 12:
They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil
come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: 13:
And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus
shall it be done unto them. 14:
Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this
word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people
wood, and it shall devour them. 15:
Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith
the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation
whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.
16:
Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. 17:
And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons
and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine
herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall
impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword.
18:
Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full
end with you. 19:
And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the
LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them,
Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so
shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours. 20:
Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,
21:
Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which
have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: 22:
Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence,
which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual
decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss
themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they
not pass over it? 23:
But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are
revolted and gone. 24:
Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God,
that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he
reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. 25:
Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have
withholden good things from you. 26:
For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that
setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. 27:
As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit:
therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. 28:
They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the
wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet
they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. 29:
Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul
be avenged on such a nation as this? 30:
A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; 31:
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their
means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the
end thereof?
In
Ch 4 Jeremiah calls on Judah in the name of the Lord to make a full
repentance in returning to the Lord in heart and in practical action.
The Lord calls on Judah to dig deep in the land that has been left
idle and circumcise their minds. The Lord is going to bring judgment
from the north and a great destruction. Men are to clothe themselves
in sack cloth and cry to the Lord. The Lord calls on Jerusalem to
wash their minds. He foretells total destruction and a land spoiled
by the enemy. The mountains will shake and at the presence of the
Lord cities will crumble. Yet the Lord will not completely destroy
everything. In their foolishness that will seek to decorate
themselves but will be murdered by those who are their lovers. In Ch
5 Jeremiah talks about the inability to find one righteous man in
Jerusalem, one who speaks the truth. They say ‘The Lord liveth’
but it is just words - having no meaning. They do not know the Lord.
The Lord will bring righteous judgment on a nation that is full of
adultery and who lie against the Lord and whose prophets they refuse
to hear. The Lord will bring a nation from afar whose language they
do not understand. Who are strong and have mighty men. They will eat
harvest, the flocks, the vines and the figs. The nation is foolish,
they have eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear.
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