KJ3 Literal Translation
Jeremiah 4
Jehovah calls Israel by His promise. He exhorts Judah to repentance by fearful judgments.
1If you will return, O Israel, a statement of Jehovah, return to Me. And if you will turn away from your detestable things out of My face and will not wander,
2and you will swear, As Jehovah lives, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in Him, and in Him they will glory.
3For so says Jehovah to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow to the thorns.
4Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah, and take away the foreskin of your heart, O men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, lest My fury go forth like fire and burn, so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
5Declare in Judah, and make it heard in Jerusalem, and say, Blow the rams' horn in the land. Cry, and say, It will be ended. Gather yourselves and go into the fortified cities.
6Lift up a banner toward Zion. Flee, seek refuge, and do not stand. For I will bring evil from the north and a great shattering.
7The lion has come up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his place to make your land a waste. Your cities will fall into ruins without one living in them.
8Put on sackcloth for this, wail and howl. For the the anger of Jehovah has not turned back from us.
9And it will be on that day, a statement of Jehovah, the heart of the king, and the heart of the rulers shall perish. And the priests shall be amazed; and the prophets shall be astounded.
10Then I said, Ah, Lord Jehovah! Surely deceiving You have deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You shall have peace, but the sword reaches to the soul.
11At that time it shall be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A hot wind from the bare hills in the desert toward the daughter of My people, not to winnow and not to cleanse!
12A wind more full than these shall come for Me. Now I also will speak judgments against them.
13Behold, he shall come up like clouds, and his chariots like a windstorm. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are plundered!
14O Jerusalem, cleanse your heart from evil that you may be saved. Until when will your thoughts of iniquity lodge within you?
15For a voice announces from Dan, and proclaims iniquity from Mount Ephraim.
16Recall it to the nations: Behold, proclaim against Jerusalem, Besiegers are coming from a distant land and give forth their voice against the cities of Judah.
17Like the men watching a field, they are against her round about because she has rebelled against Me, a statement of Jehovah.
18Your way and your doings have done these things to you; in this you have done evil, because it is bitter, because it reaches to your heart.
19My bowels! My bowels! I convulse in pain. O walls of my heart! My heart roars within me. I cannot be silent, for I have heard the sound of the rams' horn. O my soul, the alarm of war!
20Ruin on ruin has been called; for the whole land is devastated. Suddenly my tents are devastated, my curtains in a moment.
21Until when must I see the banner and hear the sound of the rams' horn?
22For My people are foolish. They do not know Me. They are stupid children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but they do not know to do good.
23I looked on the earth, and, behold! It was formlessness and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light.
24I looked on the mountains, and, behold! They quaked, and all the hills were shaken.
25I looked, and, behold! There was no man, and all the birds of the heavens had fled.
26I looked, and, behold! The fruitful place was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down before the face of Jehovah, before the anger of His nostrils.
27For so Jehovah has said, The whole land shall be a desolation; but it will not be a full ending that I make.
28The earth shall mourn for this, and the heavens above shall grow black, because I have seen, I have purposed and I will not repent, and I will not turn back from it.
29Every city shall flee from the noise of the horsemen and shooters of the bow. They shall go into thickets and go up in the rocks. Every city shall be forsaken, and not a man shall live in them.
30And you, one being desolated, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with crimson, though you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, though you make large your eyes with paint, you beautify yourself in vain. Lovers despise you; they will seek your life.
31For I have heard a voice as of one weakened, the anguish as one bearing her first child, the voice of Zion's daughter gasping and spreading her palms, saying, Woe is to me now, for my soul faints because of murderers!
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