Lexicon :: Strong's H1931 - hû'

Is Israel a slave?

Was he born into slavery?[fn]

Why else has he become a prey?

If[fn] a man divorces his wife

and she leaves him to marry another,

can he ever return to her?

Wouldn’t such a land[fn] become totally defiled?

But you!

You have prostituted yourself with many partners —

can you return to me?

This is the LORD’s declaration.

In the days of King Josiah the LORD asked me, “Have you seen what unfaithful Israel has done? She has ascended every high hill and gone under every green tree to prostitute herself there.

“I[fn] observed that it was because unfaithful Israel had committed adultery that I had sent her away and had given her a certificate of divorce. Nevertheless, her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid but also went and prostituted herself.

At that time Jerusalem will be called The LORD’s Throne, and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD in Jerusalem. They will cease to follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.

“On that day” ​— ​this is the LORD’s declaration ​— ​“the king and the officials will lose their courage. The priests will tremble in fear, and the prophets will be scared speechless.”

“At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, ‘A searing wind blows from the barren heights in the wilderness on the way to my dear[fn] people. It comes not to winnow or to sift;

They have contradicted the LORD

and insisted, “It won’t happen.[fn]

Harm won’t come to us;

we won’t see sword or famine.”

I am about to bring a nation

from far away against you,

house of Israel.

This is the LORD’s declaration.

It is an established nation,

an ancient nation,

a nation whose language you do not know

and whose speech you do not understand.

For this is what the LORD of Armies says:

Cut down the trees;

raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem.

This city must be punished.

There is nothing but oppression within her.

They grasp bow and javelin.

They are cruel and show no mercy.

Their voice roars like the sea,

and they ride on horses,

lined up like men in battle formation

against you, Daughter Zion.

“At that time” ​— ​this is the LORD’s declaration ​— ​“the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of her officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the residents of Jerusalem will be brought out of their graves.

for the customs of the peoples are worthless.

Someone cuts down a tree from the forest;

it is worked by the hands of a craftsman with a chisel.

They are both stupid and foolish,

instructed by worthless idols

made of wood!

But the LORD is the true God;

he is the living God and eternal King.

The earth quakes at his wrath,

and the nations cannot endure his fury.

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.

“However, if they will not obey, then I will uproot and destroy that nation.”

This is the LORD’s declaration.

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.

The heart is more deceitful than anything else,

and incurable ​— ​who can understand it?

But the jar that he was making from the clay became flawed in the potter’s hand, so he made it into another jar, as it seemed right for him to do.

“However, if that nation about which I have made the announcement turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it.

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

Let that man be like the cities

the LORD demolished without compassion.

Let him hear an outcry in the morning

and a war cry at noontime

“For if you conscientiously carry out this word, then kings sitting on David’s throne will enter through the gates of this palace riding on chariots and horses ​— ​they, their officers, and their people.

He took up the case of the poor and needy;

then it went well.

Is this not what it means to know me?

This is the LORD’s declaration.

Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered pot,

a jar no one wants?

Why are he and his descendants hurled out

and cast into a land they have not known?

“As for the prophet, priest, or people who say, ‘The burden of the LORD,’ I will punish that man and his household.

This is the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon).

“When the seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation’ ​— ​this is the LORD’s declaration ​— ​‘the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, and I will make it a ruin forever.

“The tumult reaches to the ends of the earth

because the LORD brings a case against the nations.

He enters into judgment with all humanity.

As for the wicked, he hands them over to the sword —

this is the LORD’s declaration.

Those slain by the LORD on that day will be scattered from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned, gathered, or buried. They will be like manure on the soil’s surface.

“All nations will serve him, his son, and his grandson until the time for his own land comes, and then many nations and great kings will enslave him.

In that same year, at the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur from Gibeon said to me in the temple of the LORD in the presence of the priests and all the people,

And the prophet Hananiah died that year in the seventh month.

“because they have committed an outrage in Israel by committing adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have spoken in my name a lie, which I did not command them. I am he who knows, and I am a witness.” This is the LORD’s declaration.

“For he has sent word to us in Babylon, claiming, “The exile will be long. Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat their produce.” ’ ”

How awful that day will be!

There will be no other like it!

It will be a time of trouble for Jacob,

but he will be saved out of it.

But I will bring you health

and will heal you of your wounds —

this is the LORD’s declaration —

for they call you Outcast,

Zion whom no one cares about.

Jacob’s leader will be one of them;

his ruler will issue from him.

I will invite him to me, and he will approach me,

for who would otherwise risk his life to approach me?

This is the LORD’s declaration.

“At that time” ​— ​this is the LORD’s declaration ​— ​“I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”

They will come weeping,

but I will bring them back with consolation.[fn]

I will lead them to wadis filled with water,

by a smooth way where they will not stumble,

for I am Israel’s Father,

and Ephraim is my firstborn.

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

“Then, as the LORD had said, my cousin Hanamel came to the guard’s courtyard and urged me, ‘Please buy my field in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for you own the right of inheritance and redemption. Buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

“Fields will be bought in this land about which you are saying, ‘It’s a desolation without people or animals; it has been handed over to the Chaldeans! ’

While he was still confined in the guard’s courtyard, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time:

“This is what the LORD says: In this place, which you say is a ruin, without people or animals ​— ​that is, in Judah’s cities and Jerusalem’s streets that are a desolation without people, without inhabitants, and without animals ​— ​there will be heard again

“In those days and at that time

I will cause a Righteous Branch

to sprout up for David,

and he will administer justice

and righteousness in the land.