Jeremiah 4

MLV(i) 1 If you will return, O Israel, says Jehovah, if you will return to me and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight, then you will not be removed. 2 And you will swear, As Jehovah lives, in truth, in justice and in righteousness. And the nations will bless themselves in him and in him they will glory.
3 For Jehovah says thus to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break up your* tillable ground and sow not among thorns. 4 Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah and take away the foreskins of your* heart, you* men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my wrath go forth like fire and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your* practices.
5 Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem and say, Blow the trumpet in the land. Cry aloud and say, Assemble yourselves and let us go into the fortified cities. 6 Set up a standard toward Zion. Flee for safety, do not stay. For I will bring evil from the north and a great destruction.
7 A lion has gone up from his thicket and a destroyer of nations. He is on his way, he has gone forth from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant. 8 For this gird you* with sackcloth, lament and wail, for the fierce anger of Jehovah is not turned back from us.
9 And it will happen at that day, says Jehovah, that the heart of the king will perish and the heart of the rulers and the priests will be astonished and the prophets will wonder.
10 Then I said, Ah, lord Jehovah! Surely you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You* will have peace, but the sword reaches to the life.
11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse, 12 a full wind from these will come for me. Now I will also utter judgments against them. 13 Behold, he will come up as clouds and his chariots as the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! For we are ruined.
14 O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long will your evil thoughts lodge within you?
15 For a voice declares from Dan and proclaims evil from the hills of Ephraim: 16 You* make mention to the nations. Behold, proclaim against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country and give out their voice against the cities of Judah. 17 They are as keepers of a field against her all around, because she has been rebellious against me, says Jehovah.
18 Your way and your practices have procured these things to you. This is your wickedness, for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.
19 My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart. My heart is in an uproar in me. I cannot hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. 20 Destruction upon destruction is cried, for the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed and my curtains in a moment.
21 How long shall I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet? 22 For my people are foolish. They do not know me.
They are foolish sons and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but they have no knowledge to do good.
23 I beheld the earth, and behold, it was waste and void and the heavens and they had no light. 24 I beheld the mountains, and behold, they trembled and all the hills moved to and fro. 25 I beheld, and behold, there was no man and all the birds of the heavens were fled. 26 I beheld, and behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness and all the cities of it were broken down at the presence of Jehovah and before his fierce anger.
27 For Jehovah says thus: The whole land will be a desolation, yet I will not make a full end. 28 For this the earth will mourn and the heavens above be black, because I have spoken it, I have purposed it and I have not relented, nor will I turn back from it. 29 Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen. They go into the thickets and climb up upon the rocks. Every city is forsaken and not a man dwells in it.
30 And you, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck you with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain you make yourself fair. Your lovers despise you, they seek your life.
31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, saying, Woe is me now! For my soul faints before the murderers.