Jeremiah 6:1-13 ▼

1 O you children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the middle of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Bethhaccerem: for evil appears out of the north, and great destruction.

2 I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman.

3 The shepherds with their flocks shall come to her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.

4 Prepare you war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us! for the day goes away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.

5 Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces.

6 For thus has the LORD of hosts said, Hew you down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the middle of her.

7 As a fountain casts out her waters, so she casts out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds.

8 Be you instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you; lest I make you desolate, a land not inhabited.

9 Thus said the LORD of hosts, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn back your hand as a grape gatherer into the baskets.

10 To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot listen: behold, the word of the LORD is to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

11 Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out on the children abroad, and on the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.

12 And their houses shall be turned to others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of the land, said the LORD.

13 For from the least of them even to the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest every one deals falsely.