Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 People of Jerusalem, run through your streets! Look around! See for yourselves! Search the marketplaces! Can you find one person who does what is right and tries to be faithful to God? If you can, the Lord will forgive Jerusalem.
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“Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its wide places, if you can find a man, if there is anyone who does justly, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her.
2 Even though you claim to worship the Lord, you do not mean what you say.
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Though they say, ‘As the LORD lives,’ surely they swear falsely.”
3 Surely the Lord looks for faithfulness. He struck you, but you paid no attention; he crushed you, but you refused to learn. You were stubborn and would not turn from your sins.
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O LORD, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.
4 Then I thought, "These are only the poor and ignorant. They behave foolishly; they don't know what their God requires, what the Lord wants them to do.
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Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know the LORD’s way, nor the law of their God.
5 I will go to the people in power and talk with them. Surely they know what their God requires, what the Lord wants them to do." But all of them have rejected the Lord's authority and refuse to obey him.
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I will go to the great men and will speak to them, for they know the way of the LORD, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
6 That is why lions from the forest will kill them; wolves from the desert will tear them to pieces, and leopards will prowl through their towns. If those people go out, they will be torn apart because their sins are numerous and time after time they have turned from God.
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Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them. A wolf of the evenings will destroy them. A leopard will watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backsliding has increased.
7 The Lord asked, "Why should I forgive the sins of my people? They have abandoned me and have worshiped gods that are not real. I fed my people until they were full, but they committed adultery and spent their time with prostitutes.
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“How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes’ houses.
8 They were like well-fed stallions wild with desire, each lusting for his neighbor's wife.
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They were as fed horses roaming at large. Everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife.
9 Shouldn't I punish them for these things and take revenge on a nation such as this?
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Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says the LORD. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10 I will send enemies to cut down my people's vineyards, but not to destroy them completely. I will tell them to strip away the branches, because those branches are not mine.
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“Go up on her walls, and destroy, but don’t make a full end. Take away her branches, for they are not the LORD’s.
11 The people of Israel and Judah have betrayed me completely. I, the Lord, have spoken."
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For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,” says the LORD.
12 The Lord's people have denied him and have said, "He won't really do anything. We won't have hard times; we won't have war or famine."
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They have denied the LORD, and said, “It is not he. Evil won’t come on us. We won’t see sword or famine.
13 They have said that the prophets are nothing but windbags and that they have no message from the Lord. The Lord God Almighty said to me, "Jeremiah, because these people have said such things, I will make my words like a fire in your mouth. The people will be like wood, and the fire will burn them up."
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The prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus it will be done to them.”
15 People of Israel, the Lord is bringing a nation from far away to attack you. It is a strong and ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know.
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Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far away, house of Israel,” says the LORD. “It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don’t know and don’t understand what they say.
16 Their archers are mighty soldiers who kill without mercy.
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Their quiver is an open tomb. They are all mighty men.
17 They will devour your crops and your food; they will kill your sons and your daughters. They will slaughter your flocks and your herds and destroy your vines and fig trees. The fortified cities in which you trust will be destroyed by their army.
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They will eat up your harvest and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat. They will eat up your flocks and your herds. They will eat up your vines and your fig trees. They will beat down your fortified cities in which you trust with the sword.
18 The Lord says, "Yet even in those days I will not completely destroy my people.
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“But even in those days,” says the LORD, “I will not make a full end of you.
19 When they ask why I did all these things, tell them, Jeremiah, that just as they turned away from me and served foreign gods in their own land, so they will serve strangers in a land that is not theirs."
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It will happen when you say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’
20 The Lord says, "Tell the descendants of Jacob, tell the people of Judah:
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“Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,
21 Pay attention, you foolish and stupid people, who have eyes, but cannot see, and have ears, but cannot hear.
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‘Hear this now, foolish people without understanding, who have eyes, and don’t see, who have ears, and don’t hear:
22 I am the Lord; why don't you fear me? Why don't you tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary of the sea, a permanent boundary that it cannot cross. The sea may toss, but it cannot go beyond it; the waves may roar, but they cannot break through.
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Don’t you fear me?’ says the LORD; ‘Won’t you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it can’t pass it? Though its waves toss themselves, yet they can’t prevail. Though they roar, they still can’t pass over it.’
23 But you people! You are stubborn and rebellious; you have turned aside and left me.
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“But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart. They have revolted and gone.
24 You never thought to honor me, even though I send the autumn rains and the spring rains and give you the harvest season each year.
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They don’t say in their heart, ‘Let’s now fear the LORD our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season, who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’
25 Instead, your sins have kept these good things from you.
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“Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you.
26 "Evildoers live among my people; they lie in wait like those who lay nets to catch birds, but they have set their traps to catch people.
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For wicked men are found among my people. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. They set a trap. They catch men.
27 Just as a hunter fills a cage with birds, they have filled their houses with loot. That is why they are powerful and rich,
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As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they have become great, and grew rich.
28 why they are fat and well fed. There is no limit to their evil deeds. They do not give orphans their rights or show justice to the oppressed.
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They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don’t plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they don’t defend the rights of the needy.
29 "But I, the Lord, will punish them for these things; I will take revenge on this nation.
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“Shouldn’t I punish for these things?” says the LORD. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
30 A terrible and shocking thing has happened in the land:
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“An astonishing and horrible thing has happened in the land.
31 prophets speak nothing but lies; priests rule as the prophets command, and my people offer no objections. But what will they do when it all comes to an end?"
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The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.