If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith Jehovah, if thou wilt return unto me, and {Or, if thou wilt put…and will not wander, and wilt swear…then shall the nations &c. or, then shalt thou swear…and the nations &c.}if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight; then shalt thou not be removed;
and thou shalt swear, As Jehovah liveth, in truth, in justice, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
For thus saith Jehovah to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye 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 doings.
Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry aloud and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.
Set up a standard toward Zion: flee for safety, stay not; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.
A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; he is on his way, he is gone forth from his place, to make thy land desolate, that thy cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.
For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Jehovah is not turned back from us.
And it shall come to pass at that day, saith Jehovah, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.
Then said I, Ah, Lord Jehovah! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the life.
At that time shall it 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;
{Or, a wind too strong for this}a full wind from these shall come for me: now will I also utter judgments against them.
Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are ruined.
O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thine evil thoughts lodge within thee?
For {Or, there is a voice of one that declareth &c.}a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth evil from the hills of Ephraim.
Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.
As keepers of a field are they against her round about, because she hath been rebellious against me, saith Jehovah.
Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness; {Or, surely}for it is bitter, {Or, surely}for it reacheth unto thy heart.
My anguish, my anguish! {Another reading is, I will wait patiently}I am pained at {Hebrew: the walls of my heart.}my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I cannot hold my peace; because {Or, as otherwised read, my soul heareth}thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, and my curtains in a moment.
How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
For my people are foolish, they know me not; they are sottish children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills {Or, moved lightly}moved to and fro.
I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
I beheld, and, lo, {Or, Carmel}the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of Jehovah, and before his fierce anger.
For thus saith Jehovah, The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full end.
For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.
Every city fleeth 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 dwelleth therein.
And thou, when thou art made desolate, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with scarlet, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou {Hebrew: rendest.}enlargest thine eyes with paint, in vain dost thou make thyself fair; thy lovers despise thee, they seek thy life.
For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that gaspeth for breath, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul fainteth before the murderers.
Querverweise zu Jeremia 4,27 Jer 4,27
A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; he is on his way, he is gone forth from his place, to make thy land desolate, that thy cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.
Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her branches; for they are not Jehovah's.
Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.
But even in those days, saith Jehovah, I will not make a full end with you.
They have made it a desolation; it mourneth unto me, being desolate; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.
For I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to save thee: for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have scattered thee, but I will not make a full end of thee; but I will correct thee in {Hebrew: judgement.}measure, and will in no wise {Or, hold thee guiltless}leave thee unpunished.
to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.
Fear not thou, O Jacob my servant, saith Jehovah; for I am with thee: for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee; but I will not make a full end of thee, but I will correct thee in {Hebrew: judgement.}measure, and will in no wise {Or, hold these guiltless}leave thee unpunished.
to fulfil the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths: for as long as it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.
And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Jehovah their God;
Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until cities be waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land become utterly waste,
In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.
and Jehovah have removed men far away, and the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land.
For thus shall it be in the midst of the earth among the peoples, as the {Hebrew: beating.}shaking of an olive-tree, as the gleanings when the vintage is done.
Behold, Jehovah maketh the {Or, land (and so in verse 3, 4, &c.)}earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord Jehovah! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?
The earth shall be utterly emptied, and utterly laid waste; for Jehovah hath spoken this word.
The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, {Or, the high ones of the people}the lofty people of the earth do languish.
The earth also is polluted under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are found guilty: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merry-hearted do sigh.
The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.
The waste city is broken down; every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
There is a crying in the streets because of the wine; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is {Hebrew: gone into captivity.}gone.
In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.
Behold, the eyes of the Lord Jehovah are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; save that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith Jehovah.
And I will stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate and waste, {Or, more than}from the wilderness toward Diblah, throughout all their habitations: and they shall know that I am Jehovah.
For, lo, I will command, and I will {Hebrew: cause to move to and fro.}sift the house of Israel among all the nations, like as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least kernel fall upon the earth.
And I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment; and the pride of her power shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, so that none shall pass through.
And Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, {Isaiah 10:22 f.}If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved:
for the Lord will execute his word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short.
And, as Isaiah hath said before, {Isaiah 1:9}Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed,We had become as Sodom, and had been made like unto Gomorrah.
I say then, Did God cast off his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
God did not cast off his people which he foreknew. Or know ye not what the scripture {1 Kings 19:10}saith of {Or, in…Compare Mark 12:26}Elijah? how he pleadeth with God against Israel:
Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
But what {1 Kings 19:18}saith the answer of God unto him? I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
But if it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.
What then? That which Israel seeketh for, that he obtained not; but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened: