Study Desk

Look! The enemy rises up like a cloud, and his chariots come like a tornado. His horses are faster than eagles. How terrible it will be for us! We are ruined!

I hear a cry like a woman having a baby, distress like a woman having her first child. It is the sound of Jerusalem gasping for breath. She lifts her hands in prayer and says, "Oh! I am about to faint before my murderers!"

The Lord says, "Walk up and down the streets of Jerusalem. Look around and discover these things. Search the public squares of the city. If you can find one person who does honest things, who searches for the truth, I will forgive this city.

Lord , don't you look for truth in people? You struck the people of Judah, but they didn't feel any pain. You crushed them, but they refused to learn what is right. They became more stubborn than a rock; they refused to turn back to God.

So a lion from the forest will attack them. A wolf from the desert will kill them. A leopard is waiting for them near their towns. It will tear to pieces anyone who comes out of the city, because the people of Judah have sinned greatly. They have wandered away from the Lord many times.

Shouldn't I punish the people of Judah for doing these things?" says the Lord . "Shouldn't I give a nation such as this the punishment it deserves?

Surely you are afraid of me," says the Lord . "You should shake with fear in my presence. I am the one who made the beaches to be a border for the sea, a border the water can never go past. The waves may pound the beach, but they can't win over it. They may roar, but they cannot go beyond it.

There are wicked men among my people. Like those who make nets for catching birds, they set their traps to catch people.

Shouldn't I punish the people of Judah for doing these things?" says the Lord . "Shouldn't I give a nation such as this the punishment it deserves?

"Run for your lives, people of Benjamin! Run away from Jerusalem! Blow the war trumpet in the town of Tekoa! Raise the warning flag over the town of Beth Hakkerem! Disaster is coming from the north; terrible destruction is coming to you.

"Everyone, from the least important to the greatest, is greedy for money. Even the prophets and priests all tell lies.

This is what the Lord says: "Stand where the roads cross and look. Ask where the old way is, where the good way is, and walk on it. If you do, you will find rest for yourselves. But they have said, ‘We will not walk on the good way.'

I set watchmen over you and told you, ‘Listen for the sound of the war trumpet!' But they said, ‘We will not listen.'

The soldiers carry bows and spears. They are cruel and show no mercy. They sound like the roaring ocean when they ride their horses. That army is coming lined up for battle, ready to attack you, Jerusalem."

My people, put on rough cloth and roll in the ashes to show how sad you are. Cry loudly for those who are dead, as if your only son were dead, because the destroyer will soon come against us.

This place where I have chosen to be worshiped is nothing more to you than a hideout for robbers. I have been watching you, says the Lord .

"As for you, Jeremiah, don't pray for these people. Don't cry out for them or ask anything for them or beg me to help them, because I will not listen to you.

The children gather wood, and the fathers use the wood to make a fire. The women make the dough for cakes of bread, and they offer them to the Queen Goddess. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to make me angry.

Then the bodies of the dead will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals. There will be no one left alive to chase them away.

The bones will be spread on the ground under the sun, moon, and stars that the people loved and served and went after and searched for and worshiped. No one will gather up the bones and bury them. So they will be like dung thrown on the ground.