Jeremiah 6:1-13 ▼

1 |Flee to safety, you people of Benjamin, leave Jerusalem. Sound the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise a signal over Beth-haccerem! For calamity and terrible destruction are turning toward you from the north.

2 I'll destroy the lovely and delicate Daughter of Zion.

3 Shepherds and their flocks will come against her. They'll pitch their tents all around her, and every one will tend his flock in his own place.

4 Prepare for war against her. Get ready, let's attack at noon! How terrible for us that the day is coming to an end, and that the evening shadows are lengthening.

5 Get ready, let's attack at night, and destroy her fortresses.|

6 For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: |Cut down trees and set up siege works against Jerusalem. It is the city to be judged, and there is oppression throughout the entire city.

7 As a well keeps its waters fresh, so the city keeps her wickedness fresh. Violence and destruction are heard in her, sickness and wounds are always before me.

8 Be warned, Jerusalem, or I'll be alienated from you. I'll make you desolate, a land not inhabited.|

9 This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: |Let them glean the remnant of Israel as thoroughly as they would the vine. Pass your hand over them like grape gatherers over the branches.

10 To whom will I speak and give a warning so they'll listen? Look, their ears are closed, and they cannot hear. Look, this message from the LORD is contemptible to them; they don't delight in it.

11 I'm full of the wrath of the LORD, and I'm tired of holding it back. Pour it out on the children in the street and on the groups of young men gathered together. Indeed, both husband and wife will be caught in it, the old and the very old.

12 Their houses will be turned over to others— their fields and wives together— when I stretch out my hand against those who live in the land,| declares the LORD.

13 |Indeed, from the least important to the most important, they're all greedy for dishonest gain. From prophet to priest, they all act deceitfully.