Ch 7-9 edits/corrections

24-JER.usfm

@@ -889,14 +889,14 @@
 
 \s5
 \v 5 I will act mercifully to you only if you change your behavior and stop doing evil things, and if you start to act fairly toward others,
-\v 6 and if you stop oppressing foreigners who live in your country, and orphans and widows, and if you stop murdering people and worshiping foreign gods.
+\v 6 and if you stop oppressing foreigners who live in your country and orphans and widows, and if you stop murdering people and worshiping foreign gods.
 \v 7 If you do what I have told you, I will allow you to stay in this land that I promised to your ancestors long ago that it would belong to them and their descendants forever.
 
 \s5
 \p
 \v 8 People are repeatedly telling you, 'The temple is here, so we are safe,' and you are trusting that what they are saying is true. But those people are deceiving you; what they say is worthless.
 \v 9 You think that you can steal things, murder people, commit adultery, tell lies in court, and worship Baal and all those other gods that you did not know about previously.
-\v 10 Then you think you can come here and stand in front of this temple, which is my temple, and say 'Nothing bad will happen to us!', while you continue to do all those disgusting things.
+\v 10 Then you think you can come here and stand in front of this temple, which is my temple, and say 'Nothing bad will happen to us!' while you continue to do all those disgusting things.
 \v 11 Perhaps you do not know that you have made this temple, which is my temple, to become like a cave where thieves hide. But I, Yahweh, am telling you that I have seen all these things!
 
 \s5
@@ -922,52 +922,52 @@ and I will destroy the people, their animals, their fruit trees, and their crops
 \v 21 Therefore, this is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God of Israel, says: "Take away your offerings that you bring to burn completely on your altars and your other sacrifices;
 do not give them to me; eat them yourselves!
 \v 22 When I led your ancestors out of Egypt, it was not offerings to be completely burned on the altar or other sacrifices that I wanted from them.
-\v 23 What I told them was, 'Obey me; if you do that, I will be your God and you will be my people. If you do the things that I want you to do, everything will go well for you.'
+\v 23 What I told them was, 'Obey me; if you do that, I will be your God and you will be my people. If you do the things I want you to do, everything will go well for you.'
 
 \s5
 \v 24 But your ancestors would not pay any attention to me. They continued to do the evil things that they wanted to do, everything that in their stubborn inner beings they desired to do. Instead of coming closer to me, they went further away from me.
-\v 25 From the day that your ancestors left Egypt until now, I have continued to send my prophets to you repeatedly.
+\v 25 From the day your ancestors left Egypt until now, I have continued to send my prophets to you repeatedly.
 \v 26 But you, my people, have not listened to me or paid attention to what I said; you have been stubborn, and you have done more sinful things than your ancestors did."
 
 \s5
 \p
 \v 27 Then Yahweh said to me, "When you tell all this to my people, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer.
-\v 28 Say to them, 'You people of Judah have not obeyed Yahweh, your God; you have not accepted it when he tried to correct you. No one among you is truthful; you do not say anything that is true; you speak only lies.'
+\v 28 Say to them, 'You people of Judah have not obeyed Yahweh your God; you have not accepted it when he tried to correct you. No one among you is truthful; you do not say anything that is true; you speak only lies.'
 
 \s5
 \q
-\v 29 So, tell them to cut off their hair to show that they are mourning; tell them to go up into the barren hills and sing a sad funeral song,
-\q Because I have completely rejected this generation of people who have made me angry."
-\v 30 Yahweh says this: "The people of Judah have done many things that I say are evil. They have set up their disgusting idols in my temple, causing it to become an unacceptable place to worship me.
+\v 29 So, tell them to cut off their hair to show they are mourning; tell them to go up into the barren hills and sing a sad funeral song
+\q because I have completely rejected this generation of people who have made me angry."
+\v 30 Yahweh says this: "The people of Judah have done many things I say are evil. They have set up their disgusting idols in my temple, causing it to become an unacceptable place to worship me.
 
 \s5
 \v 31 They have built altars at Topheth in Hinnom Valley outside Jerusalem, and they sacrifice their sons and daughters on those altars. I never commanded them to do that; it was not even in my thoughts!
-\v 32 So they should beware! There will be a time when that place will no longer be called Topheth or the Hinnom Valley; instead, it will be called the Valley of Slaughter. There will be a huge number of people who will be buried there, with the result that there will be no space to bury more bodies.
+\v 32 So they should beware! There will be a time when that place will no longer be called Topheth or the Hinnom Valley; instead, it will be called the Valley of Slaughter. There will be a great number of people who will be buried there, with the result that there will be no space to bury more bodies.
 
 \s5
-\v 33 The corpses of my people that are not buried and are left on the ground will be eaten by vultures and wild animals, and there will be no one to shoo them away.
+\v 33 The corpses of my people that are not buried and are left on the ground will be eaten by vultures and wild animals, and there will be no one to scare them away.
 \v 34 There will be no one singing and laughing anymore in the streets of Jerusalem; there will be no more joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides in Judah, because the land will be completely destroyed."
 
 \s5
 \c 8
 \p
-\v 1 Yahweh says, "After your enemies have destroyed you, then they will break open the graves of your kings and other officials who lived in Judah, and the graves of your priests and prophets and other people who lived there.
-\v 2 They will take out their bones from their graves and dishonor them by scattering them on the ground under the sun and the moon and the stars—those are the gods which my people loved and served and worshiped. No one will gather up their bones and bury them again; they will remain scattered on the ground like dung.
+\v 1 Yahweh says, "After your enemies have destroyed you, then they will break open the graves of your kings and other officials who lived in Judah and the graves of your priests and prophets and other people who lived there.
+\v 2 They will take out their bones from their graves and dishonor them by scattering them on the ground under the sun and the moon and the stars—those are the gods that my people loved and served and worshiped. No one will gather up their bones and bury them again; they will remain scattered on the ground like dung.
 \v 3 And all the people of this wicked nation who are still alive and whom I have exiled to other countries will say, 'We would prefer to die than to continue to stay alive here in these countries.' That will be true because I, Yahweh, have said it."
 
 \s5
 \p
 \v 4 Yahweh said to me, "Jeremiah, tell the people that this is what I, Yahweh, am saying to them: 'When people fall down, they get up again, do they not?
-\q When people are going along a road and find out that they are walking on the wrong road, they go back and find the correct road, do they not ?
+\q When people are going along a road and find out that they are walking on the wrong road, they go back and find the correct road, do they not?
 \q
 \v 5 Yes, they do, so why do these people of Judah continue trusting in those idols that have deceived them?
-\q They continue turning away from me and betray my covenant, even though I have warned them of what will happen.
+\q They continue turning away from me, and they betray my covenant, even though I have warned them of what will happen.
 
 \s5
 \q
 \v 6 I have listened carefully to what they say, but they do not say what they should say. Not one of them is sorry for having sinned.
-\q No one says, "I have done wicked things." They are sinning and doing what they want to;
-\q Charging into sinful behavior with the excitement of a horse that is running into a battle.
+\q No one says, "I have done wicked things." They are sinning and doing what they want to do,
+\q charging into sinful behavior with the excitement of a horse that is running into a battle.
 \q
 \v 7 Even the stork knows when the seasons change,
 \q and the dove, the swallow, and the crane understanding the time of their migration!
@@ -979,11 +979,11 @@ do not give them to me; eat them yourselves!
 \q So, why do they continue saying, "We are very wise because we have the laws of Yahweh"?
 \q
 \v 9 Those teachers, who think that they are wise, will be ashamed and dismayed when they are taken to other countries by their enemies
-\q Because they sinned by rejecting what I told them. Truly, they were not very wise to do that!
+\q because they sinned by rejecting what I told them. Truly, they were not very wise to do that!
 \q
 \v 10 So, I will give their wives to other men; I will give their fields to the enemy soldiers who conquer them.
-\q All the people, including those who are least important and those who are most important, they all are trying to get money by tricking others
-\q Even my prophets and priests, they all lie to get what they want.
+\q All the people, including those who are least important and those who are most important—they all are trying to get money by tricking others.
+\q Even my prophets and priests—they all lie to get what they want.
 
 \s5
 \q
@@ -998,8 +998,8 @@ do not give them to me; eat them yourselves!
 
 \s5
 \q
-\v 14 Then the people will say, "Why should we wait here in these small towns? We should go to the cities that have high walls around them, but even if we do that we will be killed there,
-\q Because Yahweh our God has decided that we must be destroyed; it is as though he has given us a cup of poison to drink, because we sinned against him.
+\v 14 Then the people will say, "Why should we wait here in these small towns? We should go to the cities that have high walls around them, but even if we do that, we will be killed there
+\q because Yahweh our God has decided that we must be destroyed; it is as though he has given us a cup of poison to drink because we sinned against him.
 \q
 \v 15 We hoped that things would go well for us, but things have not gone well.
 \q We hoped that we would recover and be strong again, but only things that terrify us are happening to us.
@@ -1010,7 +1010,7 @@ do not give them to me; eat them yourselves!
 \q they are coming to destroy our land and everything in it, the people and the cities."
 \q
 \v 17 Yahweh says, "I will send those enemy soldiers to Judah, and they will be like poisonous snakes among you.
-\q No one will be able to stop them from attacking you; they will attack you like snakes do, and kill you."
+\q No one will be able to stop them from attacking you; they will attack you like snakes do, and they will kill you."
 
 \s5
 \q
@@ -1031,14 +1031,14 @@ do not give them to me; eat them yourselves!
 \s5
 \c 9
 \q
-\v 1 "I wish that my head could produce as many tears as water from a spring, and that my eyes were like a fountain of tears,
+\v 1 "I wish that my head could produce as many tears as water from a spring and that my eyes were like a fountain of tears,
 \q since I cry night and day for all of my people who have been killed by their enemies.
 \q
-\v 2 I wish that I could leave my people and forget them, and go and live in a shack in the desert,
+\v 2 I wish that I could leave my people and forget them and go and live in a shack in the desert
 \q because they have not remained faithful to Yahweh; they are a mob of people who deceive others.
 \q
 \v 3 They use their tongues to tell lies just as people shoot arrows with bows.
-\q They are powerful, but not because they are faithful, but they go about doing wicked things. "They do not know me," Yahweh says.
+\q They are powerful, but not because they are faithful, for they go about doing wicked things. "They do not know me," Yahweh says.
 
 \s5
 \q
@@ -1064,7 +1064,7 @@ do not give them to me; eat them yourselves!
 
 \s5
 \q
-\v 10 So, I will weep and wail for the people who live in the mountains and in the pastures,
+\v 10 So, I will weep and wail for the people who live in the mountains and in the pastures
 \q because those areas will be desolate, and no one will live there.
 \q There will be no cattle there to call to each other,
 \q and all the birds and wild animals will have fled to other places.
@@ -1081,7 +1081,7 @@ do not give them to me; eat them yourselves!
 
 \s5
 \p
-\v 13 Yahweh replied, "These things will happen because my people have rejected my laws which I gave to them;
+\v 13 Yahweh replied, "These things will happen because my people have rejected my laws that I gave to them;
 they have not obeyed me or my instructions.
 \v 14 Instead, they have stubbornly done the things that they wanted in their inner beings to do.
 They have worshiped the idols that represent the god Baal,
@@ -1090,7 +1090,7 @@ which is what their ancestors did.
 \s5
 \v 15 So now listen to what I, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God of the Israelites, say:
 What I will do will be like giving these people bitter things to eat and poison to drink:
-\v 16 I will scatter them to many nations which neither they nor their ancestors have known anything about;
+\v 16 I will scatter them to many nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known anything about;
 I will enable their enemies to strike them with swords until I have destroyed them."
 
 \s5
@@ -1107,7 +1107,7 @@ I will enable their enemies to strike them with swords until I have destroyed th
 \v 19 Listen to the people of Jerusalem calling out, saying,
 \q 'We have been ruined!
 \q We have experienced a terrible disaster!
-\q Now we are very ashamed,
+\q Now we are very ashamed
 \q because our houses have been destroyed by our enemies, and we are being forced to leave our land.'
 \q
 \v 20 You women, listen to what Yahweh says.
@@ -1117,8 +1117,8 @@ I will enable their enemies to strike them with swords until I have destroyed th
 
 \s5
 \q
-\v 21 You must learn to sing funeral songs because people will be dying in your houses and in palaces.
-\q There will be no more children playing in the streets,
+\v 21 You must learn to sing funeral songs because people will be dying in your houses and palaces.
+\q There will be no more children playing in the streets;
 \q there will be no more young men gathering in the city squares.
 \q
 \v 22 There will be corpses scattered across the fields like dung;
@@ -1129,7 +1129,7 @@ I will enable their enemies to strike them with swords until I have destroyed th
 \q
 \v 23 Yahweh says this:
 \q "Wise men should not boast about their being wise,
-\q strong men should not boast about their being strong;
+\q strong men should not boast about their being strong,
 \q and rich people should not boast about their being rich.
 \q
 \v 24 Instead, those who want to boast should boast about their knowing me
@@ -1140,7 +1140,7 @@ I will enable their enemies to strike them with swords until I have destroyed th
 
 \s5
 \p
-\v 25-26 There will be a time when I will punish all those people who have changed their bodies by circumcising them but who have not changed their inner beings: The Egyptian, the Moab, of Edom, and of the Ammon peoples, all those who live close to desert areas far from Judah. I will even punish the people of Israel because they are only circumcised on the outside, and physically, and not on the inside, in their inner self."
+\v 25-26 There will be a time when I will punish all those people who have changed their bodies by circumcising them but who have not changed their inner beings: the Egyptian, Moabite, Edomite, and Ammonite peoples—all those who live close to desert areas far from Judah. I will even punish the people of Israel because they are only circumcised on the outside, and physically, and not on the inside, in their inner self."
 
 \s5
 \c 10