Jeremiah’s Message at the Temple Gate
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 “Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord and proclaim this word there and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.’ ”
3 The Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel says, “Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you live in this place. 4 Do not trust in false words, chanting,
‘This is the temple of the Lord,
the temple of the Lord,
the temple of the Lord.’
5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your deeds, if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and do not walk after other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you live here, in the land that I gave to your fathers from that time to forevermore.
8 You trust in lying words that cannot profit. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, 10 then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name and say, ‘We are delivered,’ that you may do all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? I myself have seen it, says the Lord.
12 But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell from the beginning, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. 13 Now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not listen, and I called you, but you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, the whole offspring of Ephraim.”
Judah’s Idolatry Continues
16 “Therefore do not pray for these people. Do not lift up a cry or prayer for them or make intercession to me, for I will not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. 19 Do they provoke me to anger? says the Lord. Do they not provoke themselves, to their own shame?
20 Therefore this is what the Lord God says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man, on animal, on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and will not be quenched.
21 The Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel says: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves. 22 For I did not just speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, 23 but this I commanded them: Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. In everything, walk in the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.
24 But they did not listen or turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their wicked hearts, and went backward, and not forward. 25 Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. 26 Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks, and they acted worse than their fathers.
27 You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 You shall tell them, ‘This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of the Lord their God, nor received instruction. Truth has perished and is cut off from their mouth.’ 29 Cut off your hair and throw it away and take up a lamentation on the barren heights, for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.”
The Valley of the Slaughter
30 “For the people of Judah have done that which is 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 They have built the high places 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 enter my mind.
32 Therefore the day is coming, says the Lord, that it will be called ‘Topheth’ nor more, or ‘The valley of the son of Hinnom’, but ‘The valley of Slaughter’, for they will bury in Topheth until there is no place to bury. 33 The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth. No one will frighten them away.
34 Then, from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem, I will remove the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land will become a waste.”