Jer 5, Jer 7, Jer 17 | ESV | STEP | Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem , look and take note ! Search her squares to see if you can find a man , one who does justice and seeks truth , that I may pardon her.

1 ^aRun to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
look and take note!
Search her squares to see
^bif you can find a man,
one who does justice
and seeks truth,
^cthat I may pardon her.
2 ^dThough they say, “As the Lord lives,”
^eyet they swear falsely.
3 O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?
^fYou have struck them down,
but they felt no anguish;
you have consumed them,
but they refused to take correction.
^gThey have made their faces harder than rock;
they have refused to repent.
4 Then I said, “These are only the poor;
they have no sense;
^hfor they do not know the way of the Lord,
the justice of their God.
5 I will go to the great
and will speak to them,
for they know the way of the Lord,
the justice of their God.”
ⁱBut they all alike had broken the yoke;
they had burst the bonds.
6 Therefore ^ja lion from the forest shall strike them down;
a ^kwolf from the desert shall devastate them.
^lA leopard is watching their cities;
everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,
because their transgressions are many,
their ^mapostasies are great.
7 ⁿ“How can I pardon you?
Your children have forsaken me
^oand have sworn by those who are no gods.
^pWhen I fed them to the full,
^qthey committed adultery
^rand trooped to the houses of whores.
8 They were well-fed, lusty stallions,
^seach neighing ^tfor his neighbor’s wife.
9 ^uShall I not punish them for these things?

declares the Lord;
and shall I not avenge myself
on a nation such as this?
10 ^v“Go up through her vine rows and destroy,
^wbut make not a full end;
strip away her branches,
for they are not the Lord’s.
11 ^xFor the house of Israel and the house of Judah
have been utterly treacherous to me,

declares the Lord.
12 They have spoken falsely of the Lord
and have said, ‘He will do nothing;
^yno disaster will come upon us,
^znor shall we see sword or famine.
13 The prophets will become wind;
the word is not in them.
Thus shall it be done to them!’”

The Lord Proclaims Judgment

14 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts:
“Because you have spoken this word,
behold, ^aaI am making my words in your mouth ^aba fire,
and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.
15 ^acBehold, I am bringing against you
a nation from afar, O house of Israel,

declares the Lord.
It is an enduring nation;
it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know,
^adnor can you understand what they say.
16 ^aeTheir quiver is like ^afan open tomb;
they are all mighty warriors.
17 ^agThey shall eat up your harvest and your food;
they shall eat up your sons and your daughters;
they shall eat up your flocks and your herds;
they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;
your ^ahfortified cities in which you trust
they shall beat down with the sword.”
18 “But even in those days, declares the Lord, ^aiI will not make a full end of you. 19 And when your people say, ^aj‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, ^akso you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’”

20 Declare this in the house of Jacob;
proclaim it in Judah:
21 “Hear this, ^alO foolish and senseless people,
^amwho have eyes, but see not,
who have ears, but hear not.
22 ^anDo you not fear me? declares the Lord.
Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand ^aoas the boundary for the sea,
a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
though ^apthey roar, they cannot pass over it.
23 ^aqBut this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
they have turned aside and gone away.
24 They do not say in their hearts,
‘Let us fear the Lord our God,
^arwho gives the rain in its season,
the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
^asthe weeks appointed for the harvest.’
25 ^atYour iniquities have turned these away,
and your sins have kept good from you.
26 For wicked men are found among my people;
^authey lurk like fowlers lying in wait. ^{▼▼The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain}
^awThey set a trap;
they catch men.
27 Like a cage full of birds,
their houses are full of deceit;
therefore they have become great and rich;
28 ^axthey have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of evil;
^aythey judge not with justice
the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,
and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
29 ^azShall I not punish them for these things?

declares the Lord,
and shall I not avenge myself
on a nation such as this?”
30 An appalling and ^bahorrible thing
has happened in the land:
31 ^bbthe prophets prophesy falsely,
and the priests rule at their direction;
^bcmy people love to have it so,
but what will you do when the end comes?

Jeremiah 7

Evil in the Land

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 ^bd“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^beAmend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 ^bfDo not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

5 “For if you truly ^bgamend your ways and your deeds, if you truly ^bhexecute justice one with another, 6 if you ^bido not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, ^bjor shed innocent blood in this place, ^bkand if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, 7 ^blthen I will let you dwell in this place, ^bmin the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 ^bnWill you steal, murder, commit adultery, ^boswear falsely, ^bpmake offerings to Baal, ^bqand go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, ^brwhich is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 ^bsHas this house, ^btwhich is called by my name, ^bubecome a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. 12 Go now to ^bvmy place that was in Shiloh, ^bwwhere I made my name dwell at first, and ^bxsee what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and ^bywhen I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and ^bzwhen I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to ^cathe house ^cbthat is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, ^ccas I did to Shiloh. 15 ^cdAnd I will cast you out of my sight, ^ceas I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of ^cfEphraim.

16 “As for you, ^cgdo not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, ^chand the women knead dough, to ^cimake cakes for ^cjthe queen of heaven. And ^ckthey pour out drink offerings to other gods, ^clto provoke me to anger. 19 ^cmIs it I whom they provoke? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, ^cnto their own shame? 20 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, ^comy anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; ^cpit will burn and not be quenched.”

21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^cq“Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. 22 For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them ^crconcerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 But this command I gave them: ^cs‘Obey my voice, and ^ctI will be your God, and you shall be my people. ^cuAnd walk in all the way that I command you, ^cvthat it may be well with you.’ 24 ^cwBut they did not obey or incline their ear, ^cxbut walked in their own counsels and ^cythe stubbornness of their evil hearts, and ^czwent backward and not forward. 25 From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, ^daI have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. 26 ^dbYet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, ^dcbut stiffened their neck. ^ddThey did worse than their fathers.

27 ^de“So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. ^dfYou shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; ^dgtruth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.

29 ^dh“‘Cut off your hair and cast it away;
raise a lamentation on ^dithe bare heights,
for the Lord has rejected and forsaken
the generation of his wrath.’

The Valley of Slaughter

30 “For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set ^djtheir detestable things in the house ^dkthat is called by my name, to ^dldefile it. 31 And they have built the high places of ^dmTopheth, which is in ^dnthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, ^doto burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, ^dpwhich I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. 32 ^dqTherefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called ^drTopheth, or ^dsthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; ^dtfor they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. 33 ^duAnd the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, ^dvand none will frighten them away. 34 ^dwAnd I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, ^dxfor the land shall become a waste.

Jeremiah 17

The Sin of Judah

1 “The sin of Judah is written with ^dya pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on ^dzthe tablet of their heart, and on ^eathe horns of their altars, 2 while ^ebtheir children remember their altars and their ^ecAsherim, ^edbeside every green tree and on the high hills, 3 ^eeon the mountains in the open country. ^efYour wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. 4 You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, ^egand I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, ^ehfor in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”

5 Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man ^eiwho trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength, ^{▼▼Hebrew arm}
whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 ^ekHe is like a shrub in the desert,
^eland shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in ^eman uninhabited salt land.
7 ^en“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
^eowhose trust is the Lord.
8 ^epHe is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
10 ^eq“I the Lord search the heart
^erand test the mind, ^{▼▼Hebrew kidneys}
^etto give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
11 Like the ^eupartridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch,
so is ^evhe who gets riches but not by justice;
^ewin the midst of his days they will leave him,
^exand at his end he will be a fool.
12 A glorious throne set on high from the beginning
is the place of our sanctuary.
13 O Lord, ^eythe hope of Israel,
^ezall who forsake you shall be put to shame;
those who turn away from you ^{▼▼Hebrew me} ^fbshall be written in the earth,
for ^fcthey have forsaken ^fdthe Lord, the fountain of living water.

Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance

14 ^feHeal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
save me, and I shall be saved,
for ^ffyou are my praise.
15 ^fgBehold, they say to me,
“Where is the word of the Lord?
Let it come!”
16 I have not run away from being your shepherd,
nor have I desired the day of sickness.
^fhYou know ^fiwhat came out of my lips;
it was before your face.
17 Be not a terror to me;
^fjyou are my refuge in the day of disaster.
18 ^fkLet those be put to shame who persecute me,
but let me not be put to shame;
^fllet them be dismayed,
but let me not be dismayed;
^fmbring upon them the day of disaster;
destroy them with double destruction!

Keep the Sabbath Holy

19 Thus said the Lord to me: “Go and stand in the People’s Gate, by which ^fnthe kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, 20 and say: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, ^foyou kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. 21 Thus says the Lord: Take care for the sake of your lives, and ^fpdo not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 22 And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath ^fqor do any work, but ^frkeep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. 23 Yet ^fsthey did not listen or incline their ear, ^ftbut stiffened their neck, that they ^fumight not hear and receive instruction.

24 “‘But if you listen to me, declares the Lord, and ^fvbring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but ^fwkeep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, 25 then ^fxthere shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever. 26 And people shall come from ^fythe cities of Judah ^fzand the places around Jerusalem, ^gafrom the land of Benjamin, ^gbfrom the Shephelah, from the hill country, ^gcand from ^gdthe Negeb, bringing ^geburnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and ^gfbringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord. 27 But if you do not listen to me, to ^ggkeep the Sabbath day holy, ^ghand not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will ^gikindle a fire in its gates, and it shall ^gjdevour the palaces of Jerusalem and ^gkshall not be quenched.’”