Jeremiah 4

Jeremiah 4:3

Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

Hitherto, O my people, your hearts have been like to a rough, thorny, uncultured ground; but now, break up this fallow ground of yours, by an unfeigned repentance, and root up these thorns of your corruptions.

Jeremiah 4:4

Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreshins of your heart.

As ye are outwardly circumcised, so also do ye cut off the foreskin of those inward corruptions, which your heart is defiled with.

Jeremiah 4:5

Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities.

Make proclamation in Judah and Jerusalem, and muster your forces together: assemble yourselves, and, for fear and expectation of the enemy, agree to go up into the defenced cities.

Jeremiah 4:6

Set up the standards toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north.

Draw your troops toward Jerusalem, and make haste; for I will bring evil upon you from the Babylonians.

Jeremiah 4:7

The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way.

The Chaldean is come forth, like a fierce lion out of his thicket or den, even Nebuchadnezzar, the great conqueror of the Gentiles, is upon his way.

Jeremiah 4:10

Then said I, Ah, Lord God! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.

Then said I, Ah, Lord God, surely this people and Jerusalem will be ready to cast upon thee the imputation of deceiving them; in that those, which have pretended to prophecy in thy name, have said, Ye shall have peace, whereas there is nothing but slaughter and vastation.

Jeremiah 4:11

A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse.

Nebuchadnezzar came, like a boisterous wind upon the bleak hills, up against Jerusalem; not to fan or winnow my people, but to blow them quite away.

Jeremiah 4:13

Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariot shall be as a whirlwind.

Behold, he shall come up, as some black cloud that threatens a tempest; and his chariots shall come rattling swiftly, as a whirlwind.

Jeremiah 4:15

For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.

I do already hear a voice from the remotest parts of the land, which runs along towards Jerusalem, proclaiming, with much horror and astonishment, the coming in of the enemy.

Jeremiah 4:16

Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.

Yea, the very nations round about take notice of that miserable desolation, which is coming upon Jerusalem; and give intelligence to each other of the fearful mischief, which is now towards them.

Jeremiah 4:17

As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellions against me, saith the LORD.

The besiegers of Jerusalem shall keep so strict a watch over the city, as the keepers of the field are wont to do of those cattle which are committed to their charge; so as not one man shall be allowed to stir out of the walls: and all this, because of their rebellions.

Jeremiah 4:19

My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

Oh the unspeakable sorrow and affliction, that I feel for the misery of my people! my bowels yearn, and my heart aches within me, to think of this woeful destruction, which is approaching to Jerusalem: I cannot contain myself, but I must break forth into lamentation; because I do, as it were, hear, beforehand, the sound of the trumpet of Nebuchadnezzar, and his alarm to this miserable war. So also verse 20, 21.

Jeremiah 4:23

I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

Alas, what a fearful confusion do I foresee everywhere! The earth shall be so laid waste, as if it had never had any form: the face of heaven shall yield no light of comfort to the earth. So verse 24.

Jeremiah 4:25

I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.

I looked, and saw all turned to a woeful solitude: there was not so much as one man to be seen in a country; nay, the very birds of the air had forsaken this desolate place, as not yielding them any means of repast.

Jeremiah 4:30

And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair: thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.

ISAIAR, CHAP. IV. V. Thou, which now art richly clad in crimson and scarlet, and decked with precious ornaments of gold, and which stainest thy skin with artificial paintings, and all this to procure and draw on thy wanton lovers, what wilt thou do? for those Egyptians, whom thou wouldst allure, will despise thee and seek thy ruin.

Jeremiah 4:31

For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail.

For I have heard a shrieking, and lamentation in Jerusalem, as the outcries of a woman in the very pangs of her travail.