Jeremiah 4

1If you will return, Israel, declares Yahweh, return to me. If you will remove your detestable idols from my sight and no longer wander,

2and if you swear, “As Yahweh lives,” in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then the nations will bless themselves by him, and in him they will boast.

3For this is what Yahweh says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem: Break up your unplowed ground, and do not sow among thorns.

4Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh; remove the foreskins of your hearts, people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or my wrath will go out like fire and burn with no one to put it out, because of the evil of your deeds.

5Declare it in Judah and proclaim it in Jerusalem, and say, “Blow the trumpet throughout the land!” Shout aloud and say, “Gather together, and let us go into the fortified cities!”

6Raise a signal flag toward Zion! Run for safety; do not stand still! For I am bringing disaster from the north, a great destruction.

7A lion has come up from his thicket; a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his place to make your land a desolation; your cities will lie in ruins without inhabitant.

8So put on sackcloth, mourn and wail, for the fierce anger of Yahweh has not turned away from us.

9In that day, declares Yahweh, the king and the officials will lose heart, the priests will be appalled, and the prophets will be astounded.

10Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Surely you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem by saying, ‘You will have peace,’ when the sword is at their throats.”

11At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness is blowing toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow and not to cleanse—

12a wind too strong for that will come at my command. Now I myself will pronounce judgments against them.

13Look! He comes up like clouds, his chariots like a whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!

14Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart so that you may be saved. How long will your wicked thoughts lodge within you?

15For a voice is announcing from Dan and proclaiming disaster from the hill country of Ephraim.

16Warn the nations; announce it to Jerusalem: Besiegers are coming from a distant land; they raise their voices against the cities of Judah.

17Like guards of a field they surround her, because she has rebelled against me, declares Yahweh.

18Your ways and your deeds have brought this on you. This is your punishment. How bitter it is! How it has reached your heart!

19My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart pounds within me; I cannot keep silent. For you, my soul, have heard the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

20Disaster upon disaster is proclaimed, for the whole land is devastated. Suddenly my tents are devastated, my curtains in a moment.

21How long must I see the signal flag and hear the sound of the trumpet?

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

23I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty; and at the heavens, and their light was gone.

24I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking, and all the hills were swaying.

25I looked, and there was no one, and all the birds of the sky had fled.

26I looked, and the fruitful land was a wilderness, and all its cities were torn down before Yahweh, before his fierce anger.

27For this is what Yahweh says: The whole land will be a desolation, yet I will not make a full end of it.

28Because of this the earth will mourn and the heavens above will grow dark, for I have spoken, I have planned it, and I will not relent or turn back from it.

29At the noise of horsemen and archers every town takes flight. They go into the thickets and climb up among the rocks. Every town is abandoned, and no one lives in them.

30And you, devastated one, what will you do? Though you dress in scarlet, though you adorn yourself with gold jewelry, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, you make yourself beautiful in vain. Your lovers reject you; they are seeking your life.

31For I hear 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, stretching out her hands: “Woe is me! My life is fainting before murderers.”