Jeremiah 6

¹Flee for safety, O children of Benjamin,

And in Tekoa blow a horn,

for evil looks down from the north,

²The lovely and the delicate,

³Shepherds and their flocks will come against her,

⁴Sanctify war against her.[#Or “Consecrate”]

Woe to us, for the day turns,

⁵Arise, and let us attack by night,

⁶For thus says Yahweh of hosts,

This is the city that must be punished,

⁷As a water well keeps its water cool,

Violence and destruction are heard within her,

⁸Be warned, O Jerusalem,

lest I make you a desolation,

⁹Thus says Yahweh of hosts:

¹⁰To whom shall I speak and admonish,

Look, their ears are closed,

Look, the word of Yahweh is to them an object of scorn,

¹¹But I am full with the wrath of Yahweh,

Pour it out on the children in the street,

For even husband with wife will get trapped,

¹²And their houses will be turned over to others,

For I will stretch out my hand

¹³“For from the smallest of them to the greatest of them,

And from the prophet to the priest,

¹⁴And they have treated the wound of my people lightly,

¹⁵Have they acted ashamed, for they have committed a detestable thing?

Therefore they will fall among those who fall at the time I punish them,

¹⁶Thus says Yahweh: “Stand at the roads and look,

and walk in it, and find rest for your inner selves.

¹⁷And I raised up watchmen over you:

¹⁸Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O community,[#Literally “To thus”]

¹⁹Hear, O earth,

because they have not listened attentively to my words,

²⁰What is this to me?

and the precious spice reed from a distant land.

²¹Therefore thus says Yahweh:[#Literally “To thus”]

and they will stumble against them,

²²Thus says Yahweh:

“Look, a people is coming from the land of the north,

²³The bow and the short sword they grasp are cruel,

Their sound roars like the sea, and on horses they ride,

²⁴We have heard news of it,

anxiety has grasped us,

²⁵You must not go out into the field,

for the enemy has a sword,

²⁶O daughter of my people,

and roll about in the ashes in mourning,

Make for yourself wailing of bitterness,

²⁷“I have made you an assayer among my people, a fortification,

²⁸All of them are stubborn rebels,

They are bronze and iron,

²⁹The bellows are burned up,[#Hebrew “bellow”]

In vain he keeps on refining,

³⁰They are called rejected silver,[#Literally “They call to them”]