HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1050
J EREMIA H 1 5
18
“Night and day my eyes overflow with tears.
I cannot stop weeping,
for my virgin daughter—my precious
people—
has been struck down
and lies mortally wounded.
If I go out into the fields,
I see the bodies of people slaughtered by
the enemy.
If I walk the city streets,
I see people who have died of starvation.
The prophets and priests continue with
their work,
but they don’t know what they’re doing.”
A Prayer for Healing
19 Lord, have you completely rejected Judah?
Do you really hate Jerusalem?*
Why have you wounded us past all hope of
healing?
We hoped for peace, but no peace came.
We hoped for a time of healing, but found
only terror.
20 Lord, we confess our wickedness
and that of our ancestors, too.
We all have sinned against you.
21 For the sake of your reputation, Lord,
do not abandon us.
Do not disgrace your own glorious throne.
Please remember us,
and do not break your covenant with us.
22
Can any of the worthless foreign gods send
us rain?
Does it fall from the sky by itself?
No, you are the one, O Lord our God!
Only you can do such things.
So we will wait for you to help us.
Judah’s Inevitable Doom
Then the Lord said to me, “Even if
Moses and Samuel stood before me
pleading for these people, I wouldn’t help them.
Away with them! Get them out of my sight! 2 And
if they say to you, ‘But where can we go?’ tell
them, ‘This is what the Lord says:
15
“‘Those who are destined for death,
to death;
those who are destined for war, to war;
those who are destined for famine,
to famine;
those who are destined for captivity,
to captivity.’
3 “I will send four kinds of destroyers against
them,” says the Lord. “I will send the sword
to kill, the dogs to drag away, the vultures to
devour, and the wild animals to finish up what
is left. 4 Because of the wicked things Manasseh
son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem, I will make my people an object of horror
to all the kingdoms of the earth.
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“Who will feel sorry for you, Jerusalem?
Who will weep for you?
Who will even bother to ask how you are?
You have abandoned me
and turned your back on me,”
says the Lord.
“Therefore, I will raise my fist to destroy you.
I am tired of always giving you another
chance.
I will winnow you like grain at the gates of
your cities
and take away the children you hold
dear.
I will destroy my own people,
because they refuse to change their evil
ways.
There will be more widows
than the grains of sand on the seashore.
At noontime I will bring a destroyer
against the mothers of young men.
I will cause anguish and terror
to come upon them suddenly.
The mother of seven grows faint and
gasps for breath;
her sun has gone down while it is still day.
She sits childless now,
disgraced and humiliated.
And I will hand over those who are left
to be killed by the enemy.
I, the Lord, have spoken!”
Jeremiah’s Complaint
10 Then I said,
“What sorrow is mine, my mother.
Oh, that I had died at birth!
I am hated everywhere I go.
I am neither a lender who threatens to
foreclose
nor a borrower who refuses to pay—
yet they all curse me.”
11 The
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Lord replied,
“I will take care of you, Jeremiah.
Your enemies will ask you to plead
on their behalf
in times of trouble and distress.
Can a man break a bar of iron from
the north,
or a bar of bronze?
At no cost to them,
I will hand over your wealth and
treasures
as plunder to your enemies,
for sin runs rampant in your land.
I will tell your enemies to take you
as captives to a foreign land.
For my anger blazes like a fire
that will burn forever.*”
14:19 Hebrew Zion? 15:14 As in some Hebrew manuscripts
(see also 17:4); most Hebrew manuscripts read will burn
against you.