Jeremiah 6:1-13 ▼

1 O CHILDREN of Benjamin, flee out of the midst of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet and set up a standard in Beth-keram; for I am bringing a calamity 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 war against her; and say, Arise, let us go up at noon. Woe to us! for the day is spent, and the shadows of the evening are lengthened.

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

6 For thus says the LORD of hosts, Hew down her trees and cast a mound against Jerusalem; this is the city to be visited with destruction; all of her calumnies are in the midst of her.

7 As a cistern that gathers its water, so has she gathered her wickedness; violence and plunder are heard in her; before me continually are grief and wounds.

8 Be chastised, O Jerusalem, lest my soul abhor you; lest I make you desolate like an uninhabited land.

9 Thus says the LORD of hosts, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine; turn back your hand as a grape gatherer when he gleans the grapes.

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

11 Therefore you are full of the fury of the LORD, and you are weary; I will measure and then I will pour it out upon the children in the streets and upon the assembly of young men together; for even the husbands and wives shall be taken, the old men with the infants.

12 Their houses shall be given to others, with their fields and wives together; for I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD.

13 For from the least of them even to the greatest of them every one commits treachery; and from the false prophets even to the priests every one of them deals falsely.