The Lord Will Not Relent

¹Then the Lord said to me: Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, yet My heart would not be with this people. Cast them out of My sight and let them go![#1Sa 7:9; Ps 99:6]

²It shall come to pass if they say to you, “Where should we go?” then you shall tell them: Thus says the Lord :

Those destined for death, to death;

and those destined for the sword, to the sword;

and those destined for the famine, to the famine;

and those destined for the captivity, to the captivity.

³I will appoint over them four kinds of disaster, says the Lord : the sword to slay, the dogs to tear, the birds of the heaven, the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.[#Lev 26:16, 22]

⁴I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.[#Jer 24:9; 29:18]

⁵For who shall have pity on you, O Jerusalem?

Or who shall bemoan you?

Or who shall go aside to ask how you are doing?

⁶You who have forsaken Me, says the Lord ,

you keep going backward.

Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you.

I am weary of relenting!

⁷I will winnow them with a winnowing fork

in the gates of the land;

I will bereave them of children. I will destroy My people,

since they did not repent from their ways.

⁸Their widows will increase before Me

more than the sand of the seas;

I will bring against them, against the mother of a young man,

a destroyer at noonday;

I will suddenly bring down on her

sorrow and terrors.

⁹She who has borne seven sons languishes;[#1Sa 2:5]

she has given up the spirit;

her sun has gone down while it was yet day;

she has been ashamed and humiliated.

And the rest of them I will deliver to the sword

before their enemies,

says the Lord .

Jeremiah’s Sorrow

¹⁰Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me

as a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth!

I have not lent with usury, nor have men lent to me on usury,

yet every one of them curses me!

¹¹The Lord said:

Truly I will set you free for good purposes.

Truly I will cause the enemy to entreat you

in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

¹²Can anyone break the northern iron

or the bronze?

¹³Your wealth and your treasures[#Ps 44:12]

I will give to the destroyer without price,

and that for all your sins,

even within all your borders.

¹⁴I will make you to pass with your enemies

into a land which you do not know;

for a fire is kindled in My anger,

which shall burn upon you.

¹⁵O Lord , You who know, remember me,[#Jer 12:3]

and take notice of me,

and take vengeance on my persecutors.

Because of your longsuffering, do not take me away.

Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke.

¹⁶Your words were found and I ate them.[#Job 23:12]

And Your word became to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart,

for I am called by Your name,

O Lord God of Hosts.

¹⁷I did not sit in the assembly of mockers,[#Ps 1:1]

nor did I rejoice;

I sat alone because of Your hand,

for You have filled me with indignation.

¹⁸Why is my pain perpetual

and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed?

Shall You be altogether to me as a deceptive stream

and as waters that fail?

The Lord Reassures Jeremiah

¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord :

If you return, then I will bring you back,

and you shall stand before Me;

and if you take out the precious from the worthless,

you will be My spokesman.

Let them return to you,

but do not return to them.

²⁰I will make you to this people

a fortified bronze wall;

and they shall fight against you,

but they shall not prevail against you;

for I am with you

to save you and to deliver you,

says the Lord .

²¹I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked,

and I will redeem you out of the hand of the violent.