Jeremiah

15* And Jehovah said to me “If Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, I care nothing about this people; send them out of my way and have them go out. 2 And when they say to you ‘Out where?’ say to them ‘Says Jehovah, The one that is for death for death, and the one that is for the sword for the sword, and the one that is for starvation for starvation, and the one that is for foreign slavery to foreign slavery.’ 3 And I will appoint over them four sorts, quoth Jehovah, the sword to kill and the dogs to drag about and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to eat and mangle; 4 and I will give them as victims to all kingdoms on earth, on account of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for all that he did in Jerusalem. 5 For who is to pity you, Jerusalem, who to lament your lot? and who to turn off to ask how you do? 6 You had abandoned me, quoth Jehovah, you were backing away; and I stretched out my hand against you and made away with you; I was tired of changing my mind. 7** And I winnowed you with a winnowing-fork in the gates of the cities of the country; I bereaved, destroyed my people because of their misdeeds; 8 I have let their widows be more multitudinous than the sands; I have brought them to such a pass that a marauder comes at noonday upon a young man’s mother; I have let fall upon them suddenly agony and heart-failure. 9* She who has given birth to seven is forlorn, her life has gone out of her; her sun has set while yet it was day, she is put to shame and abashed. And the remnant of them I will give to the sword before their enemies.”

10 Woe is me, mother, that you brought me forth to be a man of dispute and quarreling for all the earth! I have not made loans nor taken loans; everybody curses me. 11** Amen, Jehovah, if I have not wrested you for good, if I have not interposed with you in time of disaster and of distress toward the enemy. 12* Will one break iron, northern iron, and bronze? 13 —— 14 —— 15 You know! Jehovah, remember me and attend to my case, and take vengeance on my persecutors for me, not with patience; recognize how I have borne taunts on your account from those who despise your words. 16 Make an end of them, that your word may become to me a rejoicing and a gladness because I wear your name, Jehovah of Armies. 17 I did not sit in a circle of jokers and rollick; because of your hand I sat by myself, because you had filled me with antagonism. 18 Why is my pain permanent and my wound stubbornly incurable? you are becoming to me like a disappointing water, a water that is not to be depended on.

19 So Jehovah says “If you come back and I bring you back, you shall stand in my service; and if you pick out precious material from cheap, you shall be like my mouth: they shall come round to you and not you to them. 20 And I will give you to this people as a fortified bronze wall which they shall attack but not master, because I am with you to save you and rescue you, quoth Jehovah, 21 and will rescue you out of bad men’s hands and ransom you out of overbearing men’s grasp.”