Spiritual Gems
JEREMIAH 4-6
Bible Reading assignment: Jer 5:1-11
w07 3/15 9 ¶4
Jeremiah 4:
1 Then you will not be a fugitive.
2 And in him they will boast.”
3 And do not keep sowing among thorns.
4 Because of your evil deeds.”
5 And let us flee into the fortified cities.
6 For I am bringing in calamity from the north, a great crash.
7 Your cities will be reduced to ruins, without an inhabitant.
8 Because the burning anger of Jehovah has not turned away from us.
9 The priests will be horrified, and the prophets will be amazed.”
10 Then I said: “Alas, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah! Truly you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace,’ when the sword is at our throats.”
11 It is not coming to winnow or to cleanse.
12 Now I will pronounce judgments against them.
13 Woe to us, for we are ruined!
14 How long will you harbor wicked thoughts?
15 And it proclaims disaster from the mountains of Eʹphra·im.
16 And they will raise their voices against the cities of Judah.
17 Because she has rebelled against me,” declares Jehovah.
18 For it reaches clear to your heart!”
19 The alarm signal of war.
20 In a moment my tent cloths.
21 Keep hearing the sound of the horn?
22 But they do not know how to do good.”
23 I looked at the heavens, and their light was no more.
24 And the hills were shaking.
25 And the birds of the heavens had all fled.
26 Because of his burning anger.
27 But I will not carry out a complete extermination.
28 And I will not change my mind, nor will I turn back from it.
29 And no man dwells in them.”
30 They are now seeking to take your life.
31 “Woe to me, for I am exhausted because of the killers!”
Jeremiah 5:
1 And I will forgive her.
2 They would still swear to what is false.
3 And they refused to turn around.
4 The judgment of their God.
5 And torn apart the restraints.”
6 Their acts of unfaithfulness are numerous.
7 And they flocked to the house of a prostitute.
8 Each neighing after another man’s wife.
9 “Should I not avenge myself on such a nation?”
10 For they do not belong to Jehovah.
11 Have been utterly treacherous with me,” declares Jehovah.
12 We will not see sword or famine.’
13 Let this happen to them!”
14 And it will consume them.”
15 And whose speech you cannot understand.
16 All of them are warriors.
17 They will destroy with the sword your fortified cities in which you trust.”
18 “But even in those days,” declares Jehovah, “I will not carry out a complete extermination of you.
19 And when they ask, ‘Why has Jehovah our God done all these things to us?’ you should answer them, ‘Just as you abandoned me to serve a foreign god in your land, so you will serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’”
20 And proclaim it in Judah, saying:
21 They have ears but cannot hear.
22 Although they roar, they still cannot pass beyond it.
23 They have turned aside and gone their own way.
24 The One who guards for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.”
25 Your own sins have deprived you of what is good.
26 It is men whom they catch.
27 That is why they have become powerful and rich.
28 And they deny justice to the poor.’”
29 “Should I not avenge myself on such a nation?
30 Something appalling and horrible has occurred in the land:
31 But what will you do when the end comes?”
Jeremiah 6:
1 For a calamity looms from the north, a great disaster.
2 The daughter of Zion resembles a beautiful and delicate woman.
3 Each grazing the flock in his care.
4 For the shadows of evening are getting longer!”
5 And destroy her fortified towers.”
6 There is nothing but oppression within her.
7 Sickness and plague are constantly before me.
8 I will make you desolate, a land without inhabitants.”
9 Pass your hand again like one gathering grapes from the vines.”
10 They find no pleasure in it.
11 The old men along with the very old.
12 For I will stretch my hand out against the inhabitants of the land,” declares Jehovah.
13 From the prophet to the priest, each one is practicing fraud.
14 When there is no peace.
15 When I bring punishment on them they will stumble,” says Jehovah.
16 But they say: “We will not walk in it.”
17 But they said: “We will not pay attention.”
18 What will happen to them.
19 And they rejected my law.”
20 And your sacrifices do not please me.”
21 And they will all perish.”
22 And a great nation will be awakened from the remotest parts of the earth.
23 They draw up in battle order like a man of war against you, O daughter of Zion.”
24 Anguish like that of a woman giving birth.
25 There is terror all around.
26 For suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
27 You must take note and examine their way.
28 All of them are corrupt.
29 And those who are bad have not been separated.
30 For Jehovah has rejected them.”