Lexicon :: Strong's H376 - 'îš

“They did not say, ‘Where is the LORD

Who brought us up from the land of Egypt,

Who led us through the wilderness,

Through a land of deserts and of pits,

Through a land of drought and of the deep darkness [of the shadow of death],

Through a land that no man passed through

And where no man lived?’

That is to say, “If a man divorces his wife

And she goes [away] from him

And becomes another man’s [wife],

Will he return to her again? [Of course not!]

Will not that land [where such a thing happened] be completely desecrated?

But you [rebelled against Me and you] are a prostitute with many lovers;

Yet you turn to Me.” says the LORD.

For this is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem,

“Plow your uncultivated ground [for a season],

And do not sow among thorns.

Every city runs away at the sound of the horsemen and archers.

They go into the thickets and climb among the rocks;

Every city is deserted,

And no man lives in them.

“Roam back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem,

And look now and take note.

And look in her open squares

To see if you can find a man [as Abraham sought in Sodom],

One who is just, who [has integrity and moral courage and] seeks truth (faithfulness);

Then I will pardon Jerusalem—[for the sake of one uncompromisingly righteous person].

“They were like well-fed, lusty stallions,

Each one neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

‘For wicked men are found among My people,

They watch like fowlers who lie in wait;

They set a trap,

They catch men.

“Shepherds with their flocks will come against her;

They will pitch their tents all around her;

They will pasture, each one in his place [eating up all her rich grasses].

But I am full of the wrath (judgment) of the LORD;

I am tired of restraining it.

“[I will] pour it out on the children in the street

And on the young men gathered together;

For both the husband and wife shall be taken,

The aged and the very old [though full of days they are not exempt from judgment].

“They seize bow and spear;

They are cruel and inhuman and have no mercy.

Their voice sounds like the roaring sea;

They ride [in formation] on horses,

Arrayed as a man for battle

Against you, O Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem)!”

“I have listened and heard,

But they have spoken what is not right;

No man repented of his wickedness,

Saying, ‘What have I done?’

Everyone turns to his [individual] course,

As the horse rushes like a torrent into battle.

“Let everyone beware of his neighbor

And do not trust any brother.

For every brother is a supplanter [like Jacob, a deceiver, ready to grab his brother’s heel],

And every neighbor goes around as a slanderer.

“I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,

And a [funeral] dirge for the pastures of the wilderness,

Because they are burned up and desolated so that no one passes through [them];

Nor can anyone hear the lowing of cattle.

Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they are gone.

Who is the wise man who may understand this [without any doubt]? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, so that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?

O LORD, I know that the path of [life of] a man is not in himself;

It is not within [the limited ability of] man [even one at his best] to choose and direct his steps [in life].

Therefore thus says the LORD regarding the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, “Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, so that you will not die by our hand.”

“They have made it a wasteland,

Desolate, it mourns before Me;

The whole land has been made a wasteland,

Because no man takes it to heart.

“Why should You be [hesitant and inactive] like a man astounded and perplexed,

Like a mighty man unable to save?

Yet You, O LORD, are among us,

And we are called by Your name;

Do not leave us!”

Woe to me, my mother, that you have given birth to me

To be a man of strife and a man of contention to all the earth!

I have not loaned, nor have men lent money to me,

Yet everyone curses me.

“I, the LORD, search and examine the mind,

I test the heart,

To give to each man according to his ways,

According to the results of his deeds.

Therefore, give their children over to the famine;

Give them over to the power of the sword.

And let their wives become childless and widowed;

Let their men meet death [by virulent disease],

Their young men be struck down by the sword in battle.

Cursed be the man who brought the news

To my father, saying,

“A son has been born to you!”

Making him very glad.

“For I will prepare and appoint destroyers [to execute My judgments] against you,

Each with his weapons;

And they will cut down your [palaces built of] choicest cedars

And throw them in the fire.

“Is this man [King] Coniah a despised, broken jar?

Is he a vessel in which no one takes pleasure?

Why are he and his [royal] descendants hurled out

And cast into a land which they do not know or understand?

“Thus says the LORD,

‘Write this man [Coniah] down as childless,

A man who will not prosper (succeed) in his lifetime;

For not one of his descendants will succeed

In sitting on the throne of David

Or ruling again in Judah.’”

Concerning the prophets:

My heart [says Jeremiah] is broken within me,

All my bones shake;

I have become like a drunken man,

A man whom wine has overcome,

Because of the LORD

And because of His holy words [declared against unfaithful leaders].

“Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem:

They commit adultery and walk in lies;

They encourage and strengthen the hands of evildoers,

So that no one has turned back from his wickedness.

All of them have become like Sodom to Me,

And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

“Can anyone hide himself in secret places

So that I cannot see him?” says the LORD.

“Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the LORD.