Study Desk

You are so clever in your search for love that the worst of women can learn from you!

You cheapen yourself when you change course so often — you will be disappointed by Egypt too, just as you were disappointed by Ashur.

I saw that even though backsliding Isra'el had committed adultery, so that I had sent her away and given her a divorce document, unfaithful Y'hudah her sister was not moved to fear — instead she too went and prostituted herself.

"People of Y'hudah and inhabitants of Yerushalayim, circumcise yourselves for Adonai , remove the foreskins of your heart! Otherwise my fury will lash out like fire, burning so hot that no one can quench it, because of how evil your actions are.

So wrap yourselves in sackcloth, lament and wail, for Adonai 's fierce anger has not turned away from us.

Wash the evil from your heart, Yerushalayim, so that you can be saved. How long will you harbor within yourselves your evil thoughts?

"Your own ways and your actions have brought these things on yourselves. This is your wickedness, so bitter! It has reached your very heart."

For I have heard a sound like a woman in labor, in anguish giving birth to her first child. It is the sound of the daughter of Tziyon gasping for breath as she spreads her hands: "Woe to me! Everything in me is so weary before the killers."

Therefore Adonai Elohei-Tzva'ot says: "Because you people speak this way, I will make my words fire in your mouth, [Yirmeyahu,] and this people wood; so that it will devour them.

And when your people ask, ‘Why has Adonai our God done all these things to us?' you are to give them this answer: ‘Just as you abandoned me and served strange gods in your own land, so likewise you will serve strangers in a land that is not your own.'

Just as a cistern keeps its water fresh, so she keeps her wickedness fresh! Violence and destruction are heard within her, always before me sickness and wounds.

So hear, you nations; know, you assembly, what there is against them.

Then you come and stand before me in this house that bears my name and say, ‘We are saved' — so that you can go on doing these abominations!

"So you, [Yirmeyahu,] don't pray for this people! Don't cry, pray or intercede on their behalf with me; because I won't listen to you.

Rather, what I did order them was this: ‘Pay attention to what I say. Then I will be your God, and you will be my people. In everything, live according to the way that I order you, so that things will go well for you.'

So tell them all this; but they won't listen to you; likewise, call to them; but they won't answer you.

Why do these people keep backsliding? Why is their backsliding so persistent? They cling to deceit and refuse to return!

The wise are put to shame, alarmed, entrapped. They have rejected the word of Adonai , so what wisdom do they have?

They should be ashamed of their detestable deeds, but they are not ashamed at all, they don't know how to blush. So when others fall, they too will fall; when I punish them, they will stumble,' says Adonai .

Has Gil‘ad exhausted its healing resin? Is no physician there? If there is, then why is the daughter of my people so slow to recover her health? I wish my head were made of water and my eyes were a fountain of tears, so that I could cry day and night over the slain of the daughter of my people!