Jeremiah 6:1-13 ▼

1 Put yourselves under covert, ye children of Benjamin, Away from the midst of Jerusalem, And blow the horn in Tekoa, And set up a signal on Beth-cherem; For evil looketh forth from the north, And a great destruction.

2 The comely and delicate one, The daughter of Zion, will I cut off.

3 Shepherds with their flocks come unto her; They pitch their tents against her round about; They feed bare every one what is nigh at hand.

4 Prepare ye war against her; Arise, and let us go up at noon!' 'Woe unto us! for the day declineth, For the shadows of the evening are stretched out!'

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

6 For thus hath the LORD of hosts said: Hew ye down her trees, And cast up a mound against Jerusalem; This is the city to be punished; Everywhere there is oppression in the midst of her.

7 As a cistern welleth with her waters, So she welleth with her wickedness; Violence and spoil is heard in her; Before Me continually is sickness and wounds.

8 Be thou corrected, O Jerusalem, Lest My soul be alienated from thee, Lest I make thee desolate, A land not inhabited.

9 Thus saith the LORD of hosts: They shall thoroughly glean as a vine The remnant of Israel; Turn again thy hand As a grape-gatherer upon the shoots.

10 To whom shall I speak and give warning, That they may hear? Behold, their ear is dull, And they cannot attend; Behold, the word of the LORD is become unto 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: Pour it out upon the babes in the street, And upon 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 unto others, Their fields and their wives together; For I will stretch out My hand upon the inhabitants of the land, Saith the LORD.

13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them Every one is greedy for gain; And from the prophet even unto the priest Every one dealeth falsely.