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          DASV: Jeremiah 4    

1 "If you will return, O Israel,"
                says the LORD,
      "if you will return to me,
      if you will put away your detestable idols out of my sight,
           and no longer be so fickle,
2 and if you will swear, 'As the LORD lives,'
      in truth, justice, and righteousness;
      then the nations will be blessed by him,
      and they will boast about him."

3 For this is what the LORD says to the people of Judah
and to Jerusalem,
      "Break up your fallow ground,
           and do not sow among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD,
      and cut away the foreskins of your heart,
           you people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.
      If not, my wrath will go forth like fire,
      and burn so that no one can extinguish it
           because of your evil deeds.

5 Declare in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem
      and say, 'Blow the war trumpet in the land.'
      Cry aloud and say, 'Assemble yourselves,
           and flee into the fortified cities.'
6 Set up a signal flag telling them to go to Zion,
      flee for safety, do not wait;
      for I will bring disaster from the north,
      and great destruction."
7 A lion is gone up from its thicket,
           and a destroyer of nations is on his way.
      He has left his place to make your land a wasteland,
           your cities become ruins without inhabitant.
8 For this clothe yourself with sackcloth, lament and wail;
      for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us.

9 "In that day," says the LORD,
     "the king and the officials will lose heart;
           the priests will be appalled,
                and the prophets will be stunned."

10 Then I said, "Ah, sovereign LORD, surely you have deceived
this people and Jerusalem, when you say, 'You will have peace,'
when the sword is at our throat.
11 At that time it will be said to this people and to
Jerusalem, "A blistering wind comes from the bare heights
in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to
winnow or to cleanse.
12 A wind too strong for that comes from me. Now I will also
announce judgments against them."
13 "Look, He comes up like clouds,
           and his chariots like a whirlwind.
      His horses are swifter than eagles.
           Woe to us! For we are ruined."
14 "O Jerusalem, wash the wickedness from your heart
           that you may be saved.
      How long will you retain evil thoughts within you?
15 For a voice declares from Dan,
           and publishes disaster from the hills of Ephraim.
16 Announce it to the nations;
      publish it against Jerusalem,
      'the one besieging is coming from a far country,
      and raising the battle cry against the towns of Judah.'
17 They have surrounded her like watchmen guarding a field,
      because she has been rebellious against me," says the LORD.

18 "Your behavior and actions
      have brought these things on you;
      this is your bitter punishment,
      for it has penetrated into your heart."

19 My anguish, my anguish!
      I writhe in pain,
      O how my heart hurts;
      my heart throbs within me;
      I cannot be quiet,
           because I have heard the sound of the war trumpet,
           the alarm of war.
20 One destruction on top of another;
           the whole land lies in rubble.
      Suddenly my tents are destroyed,
           my curtains torn down in a moment.
21 How long will I see the battle flags,
      and hear the sound of the war trumpet?

22 "My people are foolish;
           they do not know me.
      They are senseless children,
           and they have no understanding.
      They are skillful at doing evil,
           but they have no knowledge of how to do good."

23 I looked at the earth;
      it was formless and empty;
      and at the heavens,
      they had no light.
24 I looked at the mountains;
      they trembled;
      all the hills moved back and forth.
25 I looked and there were no human beings;
      all the birds of the heavens had fled.
26 I looked, the fruitful field had become a desert;
      all its cities were turned to rubble
      at the presence of the LORD,
      and before his fierce anger.

27 For this is what the LORD says,
      "The whole land will be desolate,
           yet I will not totally destroy it.
28 Because of this the earth will mourn,
      and the heavens above grow dark;
      because I have spoken it,
      I have purposed it,
      and I have not changed my mind,
      and I will not turn back.
29 Every city flees from the roar of the horsemen and bowmen;
      they hide in the bushes,
      and climb up on the rocks.
      Every city is abandoned,
           and no one will live in them.

30 When you are made desolate, what will you do?
      Though you clothe yourself with scarlet,
      though you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,
      though you enlarge your eyes with eye shadow,
      in vain you attempt to make yourself beautiful;
      your lovers despise you,
           they seek your life.
31 For I have heard a cry like a woman in labor,
     anguish, like one giving birth to her first child,
      the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,
      reaching out her hands for help, saying,
           "Woe is me! My life fades away before these murderers."

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