Jeremiah 4

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¹If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return to me: and if thou wilt put away thy abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.

²And 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.

³For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

⁴Circumcise 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.

⁵Declare 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 fortified cities.

⁶Set up the standard towards Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.

⁷The 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; thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.

⁸For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.

⁹And 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.

¹⁰Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth to the soul.

¹¹At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness towards the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,

¹²Even a full wind from those places shall come to me: now also will I give sentence against them.

¹³Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! for we are laid waste.

¹⁴O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?

¹⁵For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.

¹⁶Make 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.

¹⁷As keepers of a field they are against her on all sides; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the LORD.

¹⁸Thy way and thy doings have procured these things to thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth to thy heart.

¹⁹My 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, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

²⁰Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste; suddenly are my tents ruined, and my curtains in a moment.

²¹How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

²²For my people are foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have no understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

²³I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

²⁴I beheld the mountains, and lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.

²⁵I beheld, and lo, there was no man, and all the fowls of the heavens had fled.

²⁶I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.

²⁷For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

²⁸For 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.

²⁹The 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.

³⁰And when thou art laid waste, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rendest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair: thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.

³¹For 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.