5 Arise, and let us go up in the night,

And let us destroy her palaces.

6 For thus hath JEHOVAH of hosts said,
Cut down her timber,

And raise a mount against Jerusalem :
She is a city ripe for visitation;

Every kind of oppression is in the midst of her, 7 As a fountain causeth its waters to issue forth, So hath she caused her wickedness to go abroad: Rapine and spoil are heard in the midst of her; Sickness and smiting are continually before my face.

8 Be thou reformed, O Jerusalem,

Lest my soul be alienated from thee;

Lest I make thee a desolation, ̈.

A land not inhabited.

9 Thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts;

They shall thoroughly glean as a vine the reliques

Turn again thine hand, like a grape-gatherer,

unto the baskets.

10 To whom shall I speak,

And give warning, so that they shall hear?
Behold their ear is uncircumcised,

So that they cannot hearken;

Behold the word of JEHOVAH hath been among

them a thing of nought,

They take no delight in it.

11 Therefore the wrath of JEHOVAH, with which I

am filled,

I am weary of refraining to pour forth

Upon the children in the street,

And upon the cabal of young men together:

Yea also the husband with the wife shall be taken,

The aged with him that is full of days, 12 And their houses shall devolve to others,

The lands and women likewise;

Because I will stretch forth my hand

Against the inhabitants of the land, saith JEHOVAH. 13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them,

Every one is wholly addicted to his lust;

And from the prophet even unto the priest,
Every one practiseth falsehood.

14 And they have healed the wound of the daughter of my people superficially,

Saying, Peace, peace; when there was no peace. 15 Were they ashamed because they had committed abomination?

16

Nay, they were not at all ashamed;
Nay, they knew not how to blush:

Therefore shall they fall one after another,

In the time of their visitation shall they be cast down, saith JEHOVAH.

Thus hath JEHOVAH said;

Stand ye by the side of the ways, and look,
And ask concerning the paths of old time,
Which is the best way, and walk ye in it;
So shall ye find a restoration of your souls.
But they said, We will not walk [in it.]
17 And I will set over you watchmen ;
Hearken ye to the sound of the trumpet.
But they said, We will not hearken.

18 Wherefore hear, O nations, and know, O congregation;

That which is among them hear, O earth.

19 Behold, I am about to bring evil upon

this people,

The fruit of their own imaginations;
Because to my words they have not hearkened,

And as for my law they have even rejected it.

20 To what purpose shall frankincense be brought unto me from Saba?

Or the rich aromatic reed from a far country?
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable,

Nor are your sacrifices pleasant unto me.

21 Therefore thus saith JEHOVAH,

Behold I am about to lay stumbling blocks before this people,

And the fathers and the sons shall stumble at them;

Together shall the inhabitant and his companion perish.

22 Thus saith JEHOVAH;

Behold, a people is coming from the north country, And a great nation shall be roused from the extremities of the earth;

23 The bow and the spear shall they take in hand;

It it is a cruel one, and they will shew no mercy; Their voice shall roar as the sea; And upon horses shall they ride, In orderly array, as men for battle, Against thee, O daughter of Sion. 24 We have heard the report thereof; Our hands are waxed feeble; Trouble hath taken hold of us,

The pain as of a woman in travail.

25 Go ye not forth into the field,

Neither walk ye in the highway
Because the sword is with the enemy,
Terror on every side.

26 O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, And roll thyself in ashes;

27

Make thee wailing as for a darling child,
Most bitter lamentation;

For suddenly shall the spoiler come upon us.
I have appointed thee to make an assay among
my people as to the gold thereof;

Thou shalt know, when thou shalt have proved,
their way.

28 They are all of them the dross of revolters,
Passing with a fraudulent currency ;
Brass and iron all of them,

Instruments of adulteration are they.

29 The bellows are burned by the fire, The lead is entirely spent ;

The refiner hath melted in vain, For the bad are not separated. 30 Reprobated silver call ye them ;

For JEHOVAH hath reprobated them.

CHAP. VII.

1 THE word which came to Jeremiah from JE2 HOVAH, saying; Stand in the gate of the house of JEHOVAH, and there shalt thou proclaim this word, and shalt say,

HEAR ye the word of JEHOVAH, all Judah,

Ye that enter in at these gates, to worship JEHO

VAH....

3 Thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings,

And I will dwell among you in this place.

4 Trust ye not in those that speak falsehood, saying, The temple of JEHOVAH, the temple of JEHOVAH, the temple of JEHOVAH, are these.

5 For if ye will thoroughly amend your ways and your doings,

If ye will altogether do justice between a man and his neighbour;

6 The stranger, fatherless, and widow shall ye

oppress;

Neither shed innocent blood in this place;

not

And after strange gods ye shall not go to your own hurt:

7 Then will I dwell with you in this place, In the land which I gave to your fathers, From everlasting to everlasting.

8 Behold ye place your confidence

In those that speak falsehood to no profit.

9 What? whilst ye steal, murder, and commit adultery,

And swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal,
And walk after strange gods,

Whom ye have not known;

10 Will

Will ye then come, and stand before me,
In this house which is called by my name,

And say,

Deliver us, that we may practise all these

abominations?

11 A den of robbers is this house becoine, Which is called by my name, in your eyes? Even I, behold, I have seen, saith JEHOVAH. 12 But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, Where I caused my name to dwell in former time, And see what I have done to it

Because of the wickedness of my people Israel. 13 And now because ye have done all these works, saith JEHOVAH.

And I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking, but ye hearkened not;