Jeremiah 11:1-23
11 The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah,
2 “Listen to the terms of this covenant and state them to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem:
3 say to them ‘Says Israel’s God Jehovah, Cursed is the man who does not listen to the terms of this covenant
4 * which I enjoined on your fathers on the day that I brought them out of Egypt, out of the blast-furnace, saying “Obey me and do just as I command you, and I will have you for my people and you shall have me for your God,
5 so as to make good the oath I swore to your fathers to give you a country that runs milk and honey as you have it this day.”’” And I said “Amen, Jehovah.”
6 And Jehovah said to me “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Listen to the terms of this covenant and live up to them.
7 For I admonished your fathers on the day I brought them out of Egypt and down to this day, admonishing them early each time, “Obey me.”
8 But they did not listen nor turn their ears, but each walked in his willful wicked way, and I brought down on them all the terms of this covenant which I had commanded should be lived up to and they did not live up to them.’”
9 And Jehovah said to me “The men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem are detected in treason:
10 they have gone back to the offenses of their first fathers who refused to listen to my words, and have themselves gone after other gods to worship them; the house of Israel and the house of Jacob have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers.
11 Therefore Jehovah says, Here I am bringing to them a calamity that they will not be able to get out of, and they will cry to me and I will not listen to them;
12 and the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods they are making burnings to, but save them in their time of calamity they will not.
13 For your gods are as many as your cities, Judah, and to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars to the shame, altars to make burnings to the Baal.
14 * “But for your part do not pray for this people, nor put up appeal and prayer for them, for I am not going to listen at the time when they call to me in their time of calamity.
15 *** What business has my darling in my house, that has done malignantly? will cuts of fat and sacred flesh take your calamity off you? then you might jubilate.
16 Jehovah has named you Stately Verdant Olive-Tree; with the sound of a great driving storm he has kindled a fire against her, and her branches burn.
17 And Jehovah of Armies, who planted you, has denounced mischief against you on account of the mischiefs of the house of Israel and the house of Judah that they have been doing, provoking me, making burnings to the Baal.”
18 And Jehovah enlightened me so that I knew; then I saw their practices.
19 * And I was like a cosset sheep being taken to slaughtering, and had not known that they had laid plans against me, “let us throw wood into his bread and annihilate him out of the world of living men, and his name not be remembered again.”
20 But Jehovah of Armies is an honest judge, a prober of heart and brain; I shall see your vengeance on them, because I have left my quarrel to you.
21 So Jehovah says of the men of Anathoth who are looking for your life, saying “You shall not prophesy in Jehovah’s name, so as not to die by our hands,”
22 —so Jehovah of Armies says, Here, I am punishing them: the young men shall die by the sword, the children shall die by starvation,
23 and there shall be no remnant of them; for I will bring mischief upon the men of Anathoth, their year of punishment.
Footnotes
^ 11:4 Or and be my people, and you shall
^ 11:14 Var. for their calamity
^ 11:15 (first words) Unc.; susp.
^ 11:15 Var. will vows and sacred
^ 11:15 (jubilate) Susp.
^ 11:19 Var. let us destroy wood in his bread Conj. let us destroy a tree in its sap
