[1] The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: [2] "Stand in the gate of
the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of
the LORD, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD.
[3] Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and
your doings, and I will let you dwell in this place. [4] Do not trust in
these deceptive words: `This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the
LORD, the temple of the LORD.' [5] "For if you truly amend your ways and
your doings, if you truly execute justice one with another, [6] if you do
not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow, or shed innocent blood
in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, [7]
then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to
your fathers for ever. [8] "Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no
avail. [9] Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn
incense to Ba'al, and go after other gods that you have not known, [10] and
then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name,
and say, `We are delivered!'--only to go on doing all these abominations?
[11] Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in
your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, says the LORD. [12] Go now to my
place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what
I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. [13] And now, because
you have done all these things, says the LORD, and when I spoke to you
persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer,
[14] therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, and in
which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers,
as I did to Shiloh. [15] And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out
all your kinsmen, all the offspring of E'phraim. [16] "As for you, do not
pray for this people, or lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not
intercede with me, for I do not hear you. [17] Do you not see what they are
doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? [18] The
children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough,
to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to
other gods, to provoke me to anger. [19] Is it I whom they provoke? says
the LORD. Is it not themselves, to their own confusion? [20] Therefore thus
says the Lord GOD: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this
place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the
ground; it will burn and not be quenched." [21] Thus says the LORD of
hosts, the God of Israel: "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and
eat the flesh. [22] For in the day that I brought them out of the land of
Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt
offerings and sacrifices. [23] But this command I gave them, `Obey my
voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all
the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.' [24] But they
did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the
stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. [25]
From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I
have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day;
[26] yet they did not listen to me, or incline their ear, but stiffened
their neck. They did worse than their fathers. [27] "So you shall speak all
these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to
them, but they will not answer you. [28] And you shall say to them, `This
is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, and did
not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.
[29] Cut off your hair and cast it away; raise a lamentation on the bare
heights, for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his
wrath.' [30] "For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the
LORD; they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my
name, to defile it. [31] And they have built the high place of Topheth,
which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their
daughters in the fire; which I did not command, nor did it come into my
mind. [32] Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when it
will no more be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the
valley of Slaughter: for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no
room elsewhere. [33] And the dead bodies of this people will be food for
the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth; and none will
frighten them away. [34] And I will make to cease from the cities of Judah
and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of
gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the
land shall become a waste.
