"Announce in Jerusalem, 'There they are!'
Robber bands are coming from a far distant land;
Yea, they are raising their cry against the cities of Judah,
Lying in wait in the field over against her on every side,
Because she hath rebelled against me, saith the Lord."
The farmers were deserting their lands and the villagers in the outlying parts of the country their homes, rushing south to the protecting walls of Jerusalem. The roads were filled with frightened men, women and children. They were not the happy pilgrims who went down to Jerusalem for the great holidays. In their fear they jostled each other and even fought to get ahead of each other. They cared nothing for their fellows. Everyone aimed to reach the capital first.
Jeremiah saw all this, and knew exactly what the result would be when the robber bands came to besiege the city. Already the farthest outlying sections had been ravaged, towns destroyed, fields laid waste, and the inhabitants driven in all directions.
No wonder that Jeremiah was filled with woe. He tried very hard to restrain himself, not to pronounce the doom of his people. But a great force within him urged him to speak:
"My anguish, my anguish! I am pained to the depths of my heart.
My heart is in a tumult within me, I cannot keep silent,
For I have heard the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war!
Destruction succeeds destruction, for the whole land is laid waste.
How long must I see the signal, hear the sound of the trumpet!
For my people are senseless, they know me not,
They are foolish children, and they have no understanding;
They are skilled! in doing evil, but they know not how to do right!"
In Jerusalem there were many who believed that they were innocent of any wrong-doing because they were worshiping God the only way they knew; but what they knew was the same old heathen way. There were many, indeed, who continued their wicked practices secretly even in places where, by King Josiah's orders, the idolatrous shrines and sanctuaries had been destroyed.
What brought pain and sorrow to Jeremiah more than anything else was the fact that the people insisted that they were not sinning, that they were living in accordance with the laws of God.
To them Jeremiah answered:
"Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see and know,
And seek in its open spaces, if ye can find a man,
If there is any who does right and seeks after the truth!
And though they say, 'As the Lord liveth,' surely they swear to
a falsehood.
O Lord, do not thine eyes look upon truth?"
Always wanting to be fair and honest in his condemnation of the people, Jeremiah bethought himself that perhaps only the common people who "know not the way of the Lord and the law of their God" were at fault. Therefore he turned himself to the nobles, to the princes of the realm, to the wealthy and exalted, saying to himself, they "know the way of the Lord and the law of their God." But to his great dismay he found that these, too, "have all broken the yoke and burst the bonds" that made them the beloved of God in the ways of their righteousness.