1    2   This word came from the Lord to Jeremiah. Stand at the gate of the Lord's house and there make your proclamation: Listen to the words of the Lord, all you men of Judah who come in through these gates to worship him. 3   These are the words of the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel: Mend your ways and your doings, that I may let you live ^note in this place. 4   You keep saying, ‘This place ^note is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!’ This catchword of yours is a lie; put no trust in it. 5   Mend your ways and your doings, deal fairly with one another, 6   do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, shed no innocent blood in this place, do not run after other gods to your own ruin. 7   Then will I let you live ^note in this place, in the

False religion and its punishment land which I gave long ago to your forefathers for all time. 8   You gain nothing by putting your trust in this lie. 9   You steal, you murder, you commit adultery and perjury, you burn sacrifices to Baal, you run after other gods whom you have not known; 10   then you come and stand before me in this house, which bears my name, and say, ‘We are safe’; safe, you think, to indulge in all these abominations. 11   Do you think that this house, this house which bears my name, is a robbers' cave? I myself have seen all this, says the Lord. 12   Go to my shrine at Shiloh, which once I made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. 13   And now you have done all these things, says the Lord; though I took pains to speak to you, you did not listen, and though I called, you gave no answer. 14   Therefore what I did to Shiloh I will do to this house which bears my name, the house in which you put your trust, the place I gave to you and your forefathers; I will fling you away out of my sight, 15   as I flung away all your kinsfolk, the whole brood of Ephraim.

16   Offer up no prayer, Jeremiah, for this people, raise no plea or prayer on their behalf, and do not intercede with me; for I will not listen to you. 17   Do you not see what is going on in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18   Children are gathering wood, fathers lighting fires, women kneading dough to make crescent-cakes in honour of the queen of heaven; and drink-offerings are poured out to other gods than me— all to provoke and hurt me. 19   But is it I, says the Lord, whom they hurt? 20   No; it is themselves, covering their own selves with shame. Therefore, says the Lord God, my anger and my fury shall fall on this place, on man and beast, on trees and crops, and it shall burn unquenched.

21   These are the words of the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel: Add whole-offerings to sacrifices and eat the flesh if you will. 22   But when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt, I gave them no commands about whole-offering and sacrifice; I said not a word about them. 23   What I did command them was this: If you obey me, I will be your God and you shall be my people. You must conform to all my commands, if you would prosper. 24   But they did not listen; they paid no heed, and persisted in disobedience with evil and stubborn hearts; they looked backwards and not forwards, 25   from the day when your forefathers left Egypt until now. 26   I took pains to send to them ^note all my servants the prophets; they did not listen to me, they paid no heed, but were obstinate and proved even more wicked than their forefathers. 27   When you tell them this, they will not listen to you; if you call them, they will not answer. 28   Then you shall say to them, This is the nation that did not obey the Lord its God nor accept correction; truth has perished, it is heard no more on their lips.

False religion and its punishment

     29   O Jerusalem, cut off your hair,
    the symbol of your dedication, and throw it away;
  raise up a lament on the high bare places.

For the Lord has spurned the generation which has roused his wrath, and has abandoned them. 30   For the men of Judah have done what is wrong in my eyes, says the Lord. They have defiled with their loathsome idols the house that bears my name, 31   they have built a shrine of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, at which to burn their sons and daughters; that was no command of mine, nor did it ever enter my thought. 32   Therefore a time is coming, says the Lord, when it shall no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for the dead shall be buried in Topheth because there is no room elsewhere. 33   So the bodies of this people shall become food for the birds of the air and the wild beasts, and there will be no one to scare them away. 34   From the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem I will banish all sounds of joy and gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the bride; for the land shall become desert.

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