Jeremiah 15
1 Then Yahweh said [this] to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel could [come back from their graves and] and stand in front of me [and plead with me for these Israeli people], I would not act mercifully [IDM] toward these people. [I would tell you], ‘Send them away from me. Cause them to leave me!’
And the Lord said unto me, If Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my favor would [still] not be toward this people: send them away out of my sight, that they may go forth.
2 And if they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’, tell them, ‘This is what Yahweh says: The ones that I say must die, will die: The ones that I say must die in wars [MTY], will die in wars. The ones that I say must die from hunger, will die from hunger. The ones that I say must be captured [and taken to other countries], will be captured [and taken to other countries].
And it shall come to pass, if they should say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth, that thou shalt say unto them, Thus hath said the Lord, Such as are destined to death, to death; and such as are destined to the sword, to the sword; and such as are destined to famine, to famine; and such as are destined to captivity, to captivity.
3 I will send four things that will get rid of them: I will send [enemy soldiers using] swords to kill them. I will send wild dogs to drag away [their corpses]. I will send vultures to eat [their corpses]. And I will send [other] wild animals to eat what remains [of their corpses].
And I will appoint over them four species, saith the Lord: The sword to slay, and the dogs to drag away, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and to destroy.
4 Because of [the wicked things that] King Manasseh did in Jerusalem, I will cause [people in] all the kingdoms of the earth to be horrified about [what will happen in Judah to] my people.
And I will cause them to become a horror unto all the kingdoms of the earth, on account of Menasseh the son of Hezekiah the king of Judah, because of what he did in Jerusalem.
5 You [people of], no one will [RHQ] feel sorry for you. No one will [RHQ] weep/cry for you. No one will [RHQ] ask (how you are/if you are well).
For who will have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who will condole with thee? or who will go aside to ask after thy welfare?
6 You people have abandoned me; you have continued to walk away [from me] [DOU]. So, I will lift up my fist to smash you; I will not act mercifully toward you any longer.
Thou hast indeed forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward; therefore do I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee: I am weary with repenting.
7 At the gates of your cities, I will [scatter you like a farmer scatters the chaff from his grain by] (winnowing it/throwing it up to allow the wind to blow the chaff away) [MET]. You, my people, have refused to turn away from your evil behavior. [So], I will get rid of you, and I will even cause your children to be killed.
And I winnow them with a fan in the gates of the land: I make childless, I annihilate my people, [since] from their ways they have not turned away.
8 I will cause there to be more widows [in Judah] than [there are grains of] sand on the seashore [HYP]. At noontime, [when people will not be expecting it to happen], I will cause [an enemy army] to attack you, an army that will destroy your young men and cause their mothers to weep. I will cause you to suddenly experience great suffering/pain and become very terrified.
Their widows are more numerous before me than the sand of the seas: I bring unto them, over the mothers of the young men, a waster at noonday; I cause to fall upon her suddenly the enemy with [his] terrors.
9 A woman who has seven children will become faint and (gasp for breath/be hardly able to breathe); [it will be as though] daylight will become darkness for her, [because most of] her children will be dead, and she will be disgraced and humiliated [DOU]. And her children who are still alive, I will enable your enemies to kill them. [That will surely happen because I], Yahweh, have said it.’”
She that had born seven children fadeth away; she breatheth out her soul, her sun is set while it is yet day; she is made ashamed and put to the blush: —and their residue will I give up to the sword before their enemies, saith the Lord.
10 [I said to] my mother, “I am very sad; I wish that you had not given birth to me; everyone in this land opposes me and quarrels with me. I am not a person who lends [money to people and threatens to sue/harm them if they do not pay me back when they should], and I am not a person who borrows [money from others and then refuses to pay it back], but everyone [HYP] curses me.”
Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast born me, a man of contention and a man of strife to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have men lent to me: [yet] every one of them curseth me.
11 But Yahweh replied to me, “[Jeremiah], I will take care of you. And at times when your enemies have troubles and disasters, they will [come to you and] plead for you [to help them].”
The Lord said, Truly I will release thee for [thy] good; truly I will cause the enemy to meet thee in the time of distress and in the time of affliction.
12 [Yahweh also told me to say to the people] of Judah, “Your enemies, who are [as strong as] iron or bronze, [will attack you] from the north; no one will be able to stop them.
Can iron break in pieces the northern iron and copper?
13 I will give all the valuable possessions [of the people of Judah] to their enemies, without them paying for it. Their valuable possessions will be the payment/reward [that I will give them] because of all the sins that you have committed throughout your country.
Thy wealth and thy treasures will I give up as spoil without price, and this for all thy sins, even in all thy borders.
14 I will tell your enemies to force you to become their prisoners, and to take you to other lands that you do not [even] know about, and force you to become their slaves. [That will happen] because I am extremely angry [with you]; my being angry is [like] [SIM] a fire that will burn forever.”
And I will cause them to pass over with thy enemies into a land which thou knowest not; for a fire is kindled in my anger, over you shall it burn.
15 [Then I said], “Yahweh, you know [what is happening to me]. [Please] come and (help me/take care of me). Punish those who are (persecuting me/causing me to suffer). [Please] do not continue to be patient with them and do not allow me to die now. It is (for your sake/because I serve you) that I am suffering.
Thou well knowest it, O Lord! remember me and think of me, and avenge me on my persecutors; not according to thy long-suffering act thou for me: know, that for thy sake I have borne shame.
16 Yahweh my God, you are the Commander of the armies of angels; and when you spoke to me, I was delighted with your message; it caused me to be joyful, and I eagerly accepted [MET] what you said because I belong to you. [IDM, MTY]
When thy words were made manifest to me, then I greedily received them; and thy word became unto me the gladness and joy of my heart; for thy name is called upon me, O Lord of hosts.
17 When the people were carousing together, I never joined them; I sat alone, because you [MTY] are the one who controls what I do. I was very angry [with those people because of their sins].
I sat not in the assembly of the mirthful, and was rejoiced; because of thy inspiration I sat solitary; for thou hadst filled me with indignation.
18 So, (why do you [allow] me to continue to suffer?/I do not understand why you allow me to continue to suffer.) [RHQ] It seems that [RHQ] my wounds cannot be healed. [Sometimes you help me, sometimes you do not help me]. It seems that you are as undependable as a brook that has water in it only during certain seasons; you are like a spring that has dried up.”
Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable? it refuseth to be healed; it is truly become unto me as a deceptive spring, as waters that are not reliable.
19 Then Yahweh [replied], “If you begin again to [trust in] me, I will restore you, in order that you can continue to serve me. If you proclaim good/valuable messages and not worthless ones, you will continue to be the one who speaks what I tell you to say. You must cause the people to pay attention to what you say; you must not pay attention to what they say.
Therefore thus hath said the Lord, If thou return, and I bring thee back again, then shalt thou stand before me; and if thou bring forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: these shall return unto thee; but thou shalt not return unto them.
20 They will fight against you, but I will protect you, like [SIM] people are protected from their enemies by a bronze wall. They will not defeat you, because I will be with you, and I will protect and rescue [DOU] you.
And I will make thee unto this people as a fortified brazen wall; and they will fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
21 [Truly], I will keep you safe from those wicked people, I will rescue you when you are seized by cruel people. [That will happen because I], Yahweh, have said it.”
And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the grasp of the tyrants.
