Jeremiah 4

1“If you will return, Israel,” says Yahweh, “if you will return to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you will not be removed;Cross-references: Gen 35:2 · Deut 27:15 · Josh 24:14 · Judg 10:16 · 1Sam 7:3 · 2Ki 23:13 · +24 more

2and you will swear, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. The nations will bless themselves in him, and they will glory in him.”Cross-references: Gen 22:18 · Deut 10:20 · 1Ki 3:6 · Ps 72:17 · Ps 99:4 · Isa 45:23 · +12 more

3For Yahweh says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, “Break up your fallow ground, and don’t sow among thorns.Cross-references: Gen 3:18 · Hos 10:12 · Matt 13:7 · Matt 13:22 · Mark 4:7 · Mark 4:18 · +3 more

4Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go out like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.Cross-references: Lev 26:28 · Deut 10:16 · Deut 30:6 · Deut 32:22 · Isa 30:27 · Isa 51:17 · +21 more

5Declare in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, ‘Blow the trumpet in the land!’ Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves! Let’s go into the fortified cities!’Cross-references: Josh 10:20 · Jer 5:20 · Jer 6:1 · Jer 8:14 · Jer 9:12 · Jer 11:2 · +5 more

6Set up a standard toward Zion. Flee for safety! Don’t wait; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.”Cross-references: Isa 62:10 · Jer 1:13 · Jer 4:21 · Jer 6:1 · Jer 6:22 · Jer 21:7 · +7 more

7A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations. He is on his way. He has gone out from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.Cross-references: 2Ki 24:1 · 2Ki 25:1 · Isa 1:7 · Isa 5:9 · Isa 6:11 · Jer 2:15 · +16 more

8For this, clothe yourself with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Yahweh hasn’t turned back from us.Cross-references: Num 25:4 · Ps 78:49 · Isa 5:25 · Isa 9:12 · Isa 9:17 · Isa 9:21 · +12 more

9“It will happen at that day,” says Yahweh, “that the heart of the king will perish, along with the heart of the princes. The priests will be astonished, and the prophets will wonder.”Cross-references: 1Sam 25:37 · 2Ki 25:4 · Ps 102:4 · Isa 19:3 · Isa 19:11 · Isa 19:16 · +10 more

10Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace;’ whereas the sword reaches to the heart.”Cross-references: Ex 9:14 · 1Ki 22:20 · Isa 30:10 · Isa 37:35 · Isa 63:17 · Jer 1:6 · +14 more

11At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot wind blows from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse.Cross-references: Isa 22:4 · Isa 27:8 · Isa 41:16 · Isa 64:6 · Jer 8:19 · Jer 9:1 · +16 more

12A full wind from these will come for me. Now I will also utter judgments against them.”Cross-references: Jer 1:16 · Ezek 5:8 · Ezek 6:11 · Ezek 7:8

13Behold, he will come up as clouds, and his chariots will be as the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! For we are ruined.Cross-references: Deut 28:49 · Isa 5:28 · Isa 13:5 · Isa 19:1 · Isa 66:15 · Jer 4:31 · +9 more

14Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long will your evil thoughts lodge within you?Cross-references: Ps 66:18 · Ps 119:113 · Prov 1:22 · Isa 1:16 · Isa 55:7 · Jer 13:27 · +9 more

15For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes evil from the hills of Ephraim:Cross-references: Josh 17:15 · Josh 20:7 · Judg 18:29 · Judg 20:1 · Jer 6:1 · Jer 8:16

16“Tell the nations, behold, publish against Jerusalem, ‘Watchers come from a far country, and raise their voice against the cities of Judah.Cross-references: Deut 28:49 · Isa 34:1 · Isa 39:3 · Jer 2:15 · Jer 4:17 · Jer 5:6 · +7 more

17As keepers of a field, they are against her all around, because she has been rebellious against me,’” says Yahweh.Cross-references: 2Ki 25:1 · Neh 9:26 · Neh 9:30 · Isa 1:8 · Isa 1:20 · Isa 30:9 · +8 more

18“Your way and your doings have brought these things to you. This is your wickedness, for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.”Cross-references: Job 20:5 · Ps 107:17 · Prov 1:31 · Prov 5:22 · Isa 50:1 · Jer 2:17 · +4 more

19My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart! My heart trembles within me. I can’t hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.Cross-references: Gen 49:6 · Num 10:9 · Judg 5:21 · Ps 16:2 · Ps 42:5 · Ps 103:1 · +30 more

20Destruction on destruction is decreed, for the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, and my curtains gone in a moment.Cross-references: Ex 33:5 · Lev 26:18 · Lev 26:21 · Lev 26:24 · Lev 26:28 · Num 16:21 · +18 more

21How long will I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?Cross-references: 2Chr 35:25 · 2Chr 36:3 · 2Chr 36:6 · 2Chr 36:10 · 2Chr 36:17 · Jer 4:5 · +2 more

22“For my people are foolish. They don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but they don’t know how to do good.”Cross-references: Deut 32:6 · Deut 32:28 · 2Sam 13:3 · 2Sam 16:21 · Ps 14:1 · Isa 1:3 · +22 more

23I saw the earth and, behold, it was waste and void, and the heavens, and they had no light.Cross-references: Gen 1:2 · Isa 5:30 · Isa 13:10 · Isa 24:19 · Jer 9:10 · Ezek 32:7 · +10 more

24I saw the mountains, and behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth.Cross-references: Judg 5:4 · 1Ki 19:11 · Ps 18:7 · Ps 77:18 · Ps 97:4 · Ps 114:4 · +8 more

25I saw, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky had fled.Cross-references: Jer 9:10 · Jer 12:4 · Hos 4:3 · Zeph 1:2

26I saw, and behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of Yahweh, before his fierce anger.Cross-references: Deut 29:23 · Ps 76:7 · Ps 107:34 · Isa 5:9 · Isa 7:20 · Jer 12:4 · +2 more

27For Yahweh says, “The whole land will be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.Cross-references: Lev 26:44 · 2Chr 36:21 · Isa 6:11 · Isa 24:1 · Isa 24:3 · Jer 4:7 · +13 more

28For this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above be black, because I have spoken it. I have planned it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.”Cross-references: Num 23:19 · 1Sam 15:29 · Isa 5:30 · Isa 14:24 · Isa 24:4 · Isa 33:8 · +25 more

29Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers. They go into the thickets and climb up on the rocks. Every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein.Cross-references: 1Sam 13:6 · 2Ki 25:4 · 2Chr 33:11 · Isa 2:19 · Isa 30:17 · Jer 4:7 · +5 more

30You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with makeup, you make yourself beautiful in vain. Your lovers despise you. They seek your life.Cross-references: 2Ki 9:30 · Isa 10:3 · Isa 20:6 · Isa 33:14 · Jer 5:31 · Jer 13:21 · +16 more

31For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who gives birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, saying, “Woe is me now! For my soul faints before the murderers.”Cross-references: Gen 27:46 · Job 10:1 · Ps 120:5 · Isa 1:15 · Isa 6:5 · Isa 13:8 · +26 more