Lexicon :: Strong's H428 - 'ēllê

Moreover, your skirts are stained

with the blood of the innocent poor.

You did not catch them breaking and entering.

But in spite of all these things

“I thought, ‘After she has done all these things, she will return to me.’  But she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

“Go, proclaim these words to the north, and say,

‘Return, unfaithful Israel.

This is the LORD’s declaration.

I will not look on you with anger,[fn]

for I am unfailing in my love.

This is the LORD’s declaration.

I will not be angry forever.

“a wind too strong for this comes at my call.[fn] Now I will also pronounce judgments against them.’ ”

Your way and your actions

have brought this on you.

This is your punishment. It is very bitter,

because it has reached your heart!

Should I not punish them for these things?

This is the LORD’s declaration.

Should I not avenge myself

on such a nation as this?

“When people ask, ‘For what offense has the LORD our God done all these things to us? ’ You will respond to them, ‘Just as you abandoned me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’ 

“Your guilty acts have diverted these things from you.

Your sins have withheld my bounty from you,

“Should I not punish them for these things?

This is the LORD’s declaration.

Should I not avenge myself

on such a nation as this?

“Stand in the gate of the house of the LORD and there call out this word: ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the LORD.

“Then do you come and stand before me in this house that bears my name and say, “We are rescued, so we can continue doing all these detestable acts”?

“Now, because you have done all these things ​— ​this is the LORD’s declaration ​— ​and because I have spoken to you time and time again[fn] but you wouldn’t listen, and I have called to you, but you wouldn’t answer,

“When you speak all these things to them, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer you.

Should I not punish them for these things?

This is the LORD’s declaration.

Should I not avenge myself

on such a nation as this?

“But the one who boasts should boast in this:

that he understands and knows me —

that I am the LORD, showing faithful love,

justice, and righteousness on the earth,

for I delight in these things.

This is the LORD’s declaration.

Jacob’s Portion[fn] is not like these

because he is the one who formed all things.

Israel is the tribe of his inheritance;

the LORD of Armies is his name.

The LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Obey the words of this covenant and carry them out.’

And when you ask yourself,

“Why have these things happened to me? ”

it is because of your great guilt

that your skirts have been stripped off,

your body exposed.[fn]

Can any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain?

Or can the skies alone give showers?

Are you not the LORD our God?

We therefore put our hope in you,

for you have done all these things.

“When you tell these people all these things, they will say to you, ‘Why has the LORD declared all this terrible disaster against us? What is our iniquity? What is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God? ’

“Announce to them, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, kings of Judah, all Judah, and all the residents of Jerusalem who enter through these gates.

Therefore, this is what the LORD says:

Ask among the nations,

who has heard things like these?

Virgin Israel has done a most horrible thing.

Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer and chief official in the temple of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.

“You are to say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David ​— ​you, your officers, and your people who enter these gates.

“But if you do not obey these words, then I swear by myself ​— ​this is the LORD’s declaration ​— ​that this house will become a ruin.’ ”

“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Like these good figs, so I regard as good the exiles from Judah I sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans.

“I am going to send for all the families of the north’ ​— ​this is the LORD’s declaration ​— ​‘and send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will bring them against this land, against its residents, and against all these surrounding nations, and I will completely destroy them and make them an example of horror and scorn, and ruins forever.

“This whole land will become a desolate ruin, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.

“As for you, you are to prophesy all these things to them, and say to them:

The LORD roars from on high;

he makes his voice heard from his holy dwelling.

He roars loudly over his grazing land;

he calls out with a shout, like those who tread grapes,

against all the inhabitants of the earth.

The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the temple of the LORD.

When the officials of Judah heard about these things, they went from the king’s palace to the LORD’s temple and sat at the entrance of the New Gate of the LORD’s temple.[fn]

“But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves, on this city, and on its residents, for it is certain the LORD has sent me to speak all these things directly to you.”

“So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I have even given him the wild animals to serve him.

I spoke to King Zedekiah of Judah in the same way: “Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, serve him and his people, and live!

“For this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I have put an iron yoke on the neck of all these nations that they might serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and they will serve him. I have even put the wild animals under him.’ ”

This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining exiled elders, the priests, the prophets, and all the people Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem to Babylon.

These are the words the LORD spoke to Israel and Judah.

Why do you cry out about your injury?

Your pain has no cure!

I have done these things to you

because of your enormous guilt

and your innumerable sins.

Set up road markers for yourself;

establish signposts!

Keep the highway in mind,

the way you have traveled.

Return, Virgin Israel!

Return to these cities of yours.

“If this fixed order departs from before me —

this is the LORD’s declaration —

only then will Israel’s descendants cease

to be a nation before me forever.

“‘This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Take these scrolls ​— ​this purchase agreement with the sealed copy and this open copy ​— ​and put them in an earthen storage jar so they will last a long time.

So the prophet Jeremiah related all these words to King Zedekiah of Judah in Jerusalem

When they had heard all the words, they turned to each other in fear and said to Baruch, “We must surely tell the king all these things.”

As they heard all these words, the king and all his servants did not become terrified or tear their clothes.

The officials then said to the king, “This man ought to die, because he is weakening the morale[fn] of the warriors who remain in this city and of all the people by speaking to them in this way. This man is not pursuing the welfare of this people, but their harm.”

“My lord the king, these men have been evil in all they have done to the prophet Jeremiah. They have dropped him into the cistern where he will die from hunger, because there is no more bread in the city.”

King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah in private, “As the LORD lives, who has given us this life, I will not kill you or hand you over to these men who intend to take your life.”

Then Zedekiah warned Jeremiah, “Don’t let anyone know about this conversation[fn] or you will die.