This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, “Stand in the gate of the house of the LORD and proclaim this message: Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the LORD. Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Correct your ways and deeds, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words, chanting:
‘This is the temple of the LORD,the temple of the LORD,the temple of the LORD.’
For if you really correct your ways and deeds, if you act justly toward one another, if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.
But look, you keep trusting in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, ‘We are delivered, so we can continue with all these abominations’? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Yes, I too have seen it, declares the LORD.
But go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, and because I have spoken to you again and again but you would not listen, and I have called to you but you would not answer, therefore what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the house in which you trust, the place that I gave to you and your fathers. And I will cast you out of my presence, just as I have cast out all your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.
As for you, do not pray for these people, do not offer a plea or petition on their behalf, and do not beg me, for I will not listen to you. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven; they pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. But am I the One they are provoking? declares the LORD. Is it not themselves they spite, to their own shame?
Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, my anger and my fury will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the produce of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished.
This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but this is what I commanded them: Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. You must walk in all the ways I have commanded you, so that it may go well with you.
Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. From the day your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all my servants the prophets again and again. Yet they would not listen to me or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and did more evil than their fathers.
When you tell them all these things, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer. Therefore you must say to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the voice of the LORD their God and would not receive correction. Truth has perished; it has disappeared from their lips. Cut off your hair and throw it away. Raise up a lamentation on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.’
For the people of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the LORD. They have set up their abominations in the house that bears my Name, and so have defiled it. They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom so they could burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I never commanded, nor did it even enter my mind.
So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. The corpses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to scare them away.
I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wasteland.”
“At that time,” declares the LORD, “the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of the officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves. They will be exposed to the sun and moon, and to all the host of heaven which they have loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshiped. Their bones will not be gathered up or buried, but will become like dung lying on the ground. And wherever I have banished them, the remnant of this evil family will choose death over life,” declares the LORD of Hosts.
So you are to tell them this is what the LORD says:
“Do men fall and not get up again?Does one turn away and not return?Why then have these people turned away?Why does Jerusalem always turn away?They cling to deceit;they refuse to return.I have listened and heard;they do not speak what is right.No one repents of his wickedness,asking, ‘What have I done?’Everyone has pursued his own courselike a horse charging into battle.Even the stork in the skyknows her appointed seasons.The turtledove, the swift, and the thrushkeep their time of migration,but my people do not knowthe requirements of the LORD.
How can you say, ‘We are wise,and the Law of the LORD is with us,’when in fact the lying pen of the scribeshas produced a deception?The wise will be put to shame;they will be dismayed and trapped.Since they have rejected the word of the LORD,what wisdom do they really have?
Therefore I will give their wives to other menand their fields to new owners.For from the least of them to the greatest,all are greedy for gain;from prophet to priest,all practice deceit.They dress the wound of the daughter of my peoplewith very little care,saying, ‘Peace, peace,’when there is no peace at all.Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed?No, they have no shame at all;they do not even know how to blush.So they will fall among the fallen;when I punish them, they will collapse,says the LORD.
I will take away their harvest,declares the LORD.There will be no grapes on the vine,nor figs on the tree,and even the leaf will wither.Whatever I have given them will be lost to them.”
Why are we just sitting here?Gather together,let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there,for the LORD our God has doomed us.He has given us poisoned water to drink,because we have sinned against the LORD.We hoped for peace,but no good has come,for a time of healing,but there was only terror.
The snorting of enemy horsesis heard from Dan.At the sound of the neighing of mighty steeds,the whole land quakes.They come to devour the land and everything in it,the city and all who dwell in it.
“For behold, I will send snakes among you,vipers that cannot be charmed,and they will bite you,”declares the LORD.
My sorrow is beyond healing;my heart is faint within me.Listen to the cry of the daughter of my peoplefrom a land far away:
“Is the LORD no longer in Zion?Is her King no longer there?”
“Why have they provoked me to angerwith their carved images,with their worthless foreign idols?”
“The harvest has passed, the summer has ended,but we have not been saved.”
For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am crushed.I mourn; horror has gripped me.Is there no balm in Gilead?Is no physician there?Why then has the health of the daughter of my peoplenot been restored?Oh, that my head were a spring of water,and my eyes a fountain of tears!I would weep day and nightover the slain daughter of my people.If only I had a traveler’s lodge in the wilderness,I would abandon my people and depart from them,for they are all adulterers,a crowd of faithless people.
“They bend their tongues like bows;lies prevail over truth in the land.For they proceed from evil to evil,and they do not take me into account,”declares the LORD.“Let everyone guard against his neighbor;do not trust any brother,for every brother deals craftily,and every friend spreads slander.Each one betrays his friend;no one tells the truth.They have taught their tongues to lie;they wear themselves out committing iniquity.You dwell in the midst of deception;in their deceit they refuse to know me,”declares the LORD.
Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says:
“Behold, I will refine them and test them,for what else can I dobecause of the daughter of my people?Their tongues are deadly arrows;they speak deception.With his mouth a man speaks peace to his neighbor,but in his heart he sets a trap for him.Should I not punish them for these things?declares the LORD.Should I not avenge myselfon such a nation as this?”
I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,a dirge over the wilderness pasture,for they have been scorched so no one passes through,and the lowing of cattle is not heard.Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled;they have gone away.
“And I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble,a haunt for jackals;and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,without inhabitant.”
Who is the man wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a desert, so no one can pass through it?
And the LORD answered, “It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not walked in it or obeyed my voice. Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts and gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.”
Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink. I will scatter them among the nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”
This is what the LORD of Hosts says:
“Take note, and summon the wailing women;send for the most skillful among them.Let them come quicklyand take up a lament over us,that our eyes may overflow with tears,and our eyelids may gush with water.For the sound of wailingis heard from Zion:‘How devastated we are!How great is our shame!For we have abandoned the landbecause our dwellings have been torn down.’ ”
Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD.Open your ears to the word of his mouth.Teach your daughters to wail,and one another to lament.For death has climbed in through our windows;it has entered our fortressesto cut off the children from the streets,the young men from the town squares.
Declare that this is what the LORD says:
“The corpses of men will fall like dungupon the open field,like newly cut grain behind the reaper,with no one to gather it.”
This is what the LORD says:
“Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom,nor the strong man in his strength,nor the wealthy man in his riches.But let him who boasts boast in this,that he understands and knows me,that I am the LORD,who exercises loving devotion,justice and righteousness on the earth—for I delight in these things,”declares the LORD.
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised yet uncircumcised: Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and all the inhabitants of the desert who clip the hair of their temples. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”
Hear the word that the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel. This is what the LORD says:
“Do not learn the ways of the nationsor be terrified by the signs in the heavens,though the nations themselves are terrified by them.For the customs of the peoples are worthless;they cut down a tree from the forest;it is shaped with a chiselby the hands of a craftsman.They adorn it with silver and goldand fasten it with hammer and nails,so that it will not totter.
Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch,their idols cannot speak.They must be carriedbecause they cannot walk.Do not fear them, for they can do no harm,and neither can they do any good.”
There is none like you, O LORD.You are great, and your name is mighty in power.Who would not fear you, O King of nations?This is your due.For among all the wise men of the nations,and in all their kingdoms,there is none like you.
But they are altogether senseless and foolish,instructed by worthless idols made of wood!Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish,and gold from Uphaz—the work of a craftsmanfrom the hands of a goldsmith.Their clothes are blue and purple,all fashioned by skilled workers.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 indignation.
Thus you are to tell them: “These gods, who have made neither the heavens nor the earth, will perish from this earth and from under these heavens.”
The LORD made the earth by his power;he established the world by his wisdomand stretched out the heavens by his understanding.When he thunders,the waters in the heavens roar;he causes the clouds to risefrom the ends of the earth.He generates the lightning with the rainand brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
Every man is senseless and devoid of knowledge;every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols.For his molten images are a fraud,and there is no breath in them.They are worthless, a work to be mocked.In the time of their punishment they will perish.
The Portion of Jacob is not like these,for he is the Maker of all things,and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance—the LORD of Hosts is his name.
Gather up your belongings from this land, you who live under siege. For this is what the LORD says:
“Behold, at this time I will sling outthe inhabitants of the landand bring distress upon themso that they may be captured.”
Woe to me because of my brokenness;my wound is grievous!But I said, “This is truly my sickness,and I must bear it.”My tent is destroyed,and all its ropes are snapped.My sons have departed from meand are no more.I have no one left to pitch my tentor set up my curtains.
For the shepherds have become senseless;they do not seek the LORD.Therefore they have not prospered,and all their flock is scattered.Listen! The sound of a report is coming—a great commotion from the land to the north.The cities of Judah will be made a desolation,a haunt for jackals.
I know, O LORD, that a man’s way is not his own;no one who walks directs his own steps.Correct me, O LORD,but only with justice—not in your anger,or you will bring me to nothing.
Pour out your wrath on the nationsthat do not acknowledge you,and on the familiesthat do not call on your name.For they have devoured Jacob;they have consumed him and finished him off;they have devastated his homeland.