Jer 4 | EngLXX | STEP | If Israel will return to me, says the Lord, he shall return: and if he will remove his abominationsout of his mouth, and fear before me, and swear,

Jeremiah 4

1 If Israel will return to me, says the Lord, he shall return: and if he will remove his abominationsout of his mouth, and fear before me, and swear, 2 The Lord lives, with truth, in judgment and righteousness, then shall nations bless byhim, and by him they shall praise God in Jerusalem. 3 For thus says the Lord to the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Breakup fresh ground for yourselves, and sow not among thorns. 4 Circumcise yourselves to your God, and circumcise your hardness of heart, you⌃ men ofJuda, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my wrath go forth as fire, and burn, and there be none to quenchit, because of the evil of your devices. 5 Declare you⌃ in Juda, and let it be heard in Jerusalem: say you⌃, Sound the trumpet inthe land; cry you⌃ aloud: say you⌃, Gather yourselves together, and let us enter into the fortified cities. 6 Gather upyour wares and flee to Sion: hasten, stay not: for I will bring evils from the north, and greatdestruction. 7 The lion is gone up from his lair, he has rousedhimself to the destruction of the nations, and has gone forth out of his place, to make theland desolate; and the cities shall be destroyed, so as to be without inhabitant. 8 For these things gird yourselves with sackcloth, and lament, and howl: for the anger ofthe Lord is not turned away from you. 9 And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, that the heart of the king shallperish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be amazed, and the prophets shall wonder. 10 And I said, O sovereign Lord, verily you have deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying,There shall be peace; whereas behold, the sword has reached even to their soul. 11 At that time they shall say to this people and to Jerusalem,There is a spirit of error in the wilderness: the way of the daughter of my people is not topurity, nor to holiness. 12 But a spirit of full vengeance shall come upon me; and now I declare my judgments against them. 13 Behold, he shall come up as a cloud, and his chariots as a tempest: his horses are swifterthan eagles. Woe to us! for we are in misery. 14 Cleanse your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved: how long willyour grievous thoughts be within you? 15 For a voice of one publishing from Dan shall come, and trouble out of mount Ephraim shallbe heard of. 16 Remind you⌃ the nations; behold, they are come: proclaimit in Jerusalem, that bands are approaching from a land afar off, and have uttered their voiceagainst the cities of Juda. 17 As keepers of a field, they have surrounded her; because you, says the Lord, has neglectedme. 18 Your ways and your devices have brought these things upon you; this is your wickedness,forit is bitter, for it has reached to your heart. 19 I am pained in my bowels, my bowels, and the sensitive powers of my heart; my soul isin great commotion, my heart is torn: I will not be silent, for my soul has heard the sound of a trumpet,the cry of war, and of distress: it calls on destruction; 20 for all the land is distressed: suddenlymy tabernacle is distressed, my curtains have been tore asunder. 21 How long shall I see fugitives, and hear the sound of the trumpet? 22 For the princes of my people have not known me, they are foolish and unwise children:they are wise to do evil, buthow to do good they have not known. 23 I looked upon the earth, and, behold,it was not; and to the sky, an there was no light in it. 24 I [*]saw the mountains, and they trembled, andI saw all the hills in commotion. 25 I looked, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky were scared. 26 I saw, and, behold, Carmel was desert, and all the cities were burnt with fire at thepresence of the Lord, and at the presence of his fierce anger they were utterly destroyed. 27 Thus says the Lord, The whole land shall be desolate; but I will not make a full end. 28 For these things let the earth mourn, and let the sky be dark above: for I have spoken,and I will not repent; I have purposed, and I will not turn back from it. 29 The whole land has recoiled from the noise of the horseman and the bent bow; they havegone into the caves, and have hidden themselves in the groves, and have gone up upon the rocks: everycity was abandoned, no man lived in them. 30 And what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, and adorn yourself withgolden ornaments; though you adorn your eyes with stibium, your beautywill be in vain: your lovers have rejected you, they seek your life. 31 For I have heard your groaning as the voice of a woman in travail, as of her that bringsforth her first child; the voice of the daughter of Zion shall fail through weakness, and she shall losethe strength of her hands,saying, Woe is me! for my soul faints because of the slain.