Message at the Temple Gate
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 “aStand in the gate of the Lord’s house and proclaim there this word and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship the Lord!’” 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “aAmend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 aDo not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ 5 For aif you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly bpractice justice between a man and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress the alien, the aorphan, or the widow, and do not shed binnocent blood in this place, nor cwalk after other gods to your own ruin, 7 then I will let you adwell in this place, in the bland that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.
8 “Behold, you are trusting in adeceptive words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and aoffer sacrifices to Baal and walk after bother gods that you have not known, 10 then acome and stand before Me in bthis house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—that you may do all these abominations? 11 Has athis house, which is called by My name, become a bden of robbers in your sight? Behold, cI, even I, have seen it,” declares the Lord.
12 “But go now to My place which was in aShiloh, where I bmade My name dwell at the first, and csee what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things,” declares the Lord, “and I spoke to you, arising up early and bspeaking, but you did not hear, and I ccalled you but you did not answer, 14 therefore, I will do to the ahouse which is called by My name, bin which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, as I cdid to Shiloh. 15 I will acast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the offspring of bEphraim.
16 “As for you, ado not pray for this people, and do not 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, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they apour out drink offerings to other gods in order to bspite Me. 19 aDo they spite Me?” declares the Lord. “Is it not themselves they spite, to their own bshame?” 20 Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, My aanger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast and on the btrees of the field and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched.”
21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Add your aburnt offerings to your sacrifices and beat flesh. 22 For I did not aspeak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘aObey My voice, and bI will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may cbe well with you.’ 24 Yet they adid not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and bwent backward and not forward. 25 Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have asent you all My servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending them. 26 Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but astiffened their neck; they bdid more evil than their fathers.
27 “You shall aspeak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will bnot answer you. 28 You shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that adid not obey the voice of the Lord their God or accept correction; btruth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.
29 ‘aCut off your hair and cast it away,
And btake up a lamentation on the bare heights;
For the Lord has crejected and forsaken
The generation of His wrath.’
30 For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight,” declares the Lord, “they have aset their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. 31 They have abuilt the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to bburn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I cdid not command, and it did not come into My mind.
32 “aTherefore, behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of the Slaughter; for they will bbury in Topheth because there is no other place. 33 The adead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth; and no one will frighten them away. 34 Then I will make to acease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the bland will become a ruin.
The Sin and Treachery of Judah
“At that time,” declares the Lord, “they will abring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves. 2 They will spread them out to the sun, the moon and to all the ahost of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served, and which they have gone after and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered bor buried; cthey will be as dung on the face of the ground. 3 And adeath will be chosen rather than life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family, that remains in all the bplaces to which I have driven them,” declares the Lord of hosts. 4 “You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord,
“Do men afall and not get up again?
Does one turn away and not repent?
5 “Why then has this people, Jerusalem,
aTurned away in continual apostasy?
They bhold fast to deceit,
They crefuse to return.
6 “I ahave listened and heard,
They have spoken what is not right;
bNo man repented of his wickedness,
Saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turned to his course,
Like a chorse charging into the battle.
7 “Even the stork in the sky
aKnows her seasons;
And the bturtledove and the swift and the thrush
Observe the time of their migration;
But cMy people do not know
The ordinance of the Lord.
8 “aHow can you say, ‘We are wise,
And the law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
Has made it into a lie.
9 “The wise men are aput to shame,
They are dismayed and caught;
Behold, they have brejected the word of the Lord,
And what kind of wisdom do they have?
10 “Therefore I will agive their wives to others,
Their fields to new owners;
Because from the least even to the greatest
Everyone is bgreedy for gain;
From the prophet even to the priest
Everyone practices deceit.
11 “They aheal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
But there is no peace.
12 “Were they aashamed because of the abomination they had done?
They certainly were not ashamed,
And they did not know how to blush;
Therefore they shall bfall among those who fall;
At the ctime of their punishment they shall be brought down,”
Says the Lord.
13 “I will asurely snatch them away,” declares the Lord;
“There will be bno grapes on the vine
And cno figs on the fig tree,
And the leaf will wither;
And what I have given them will pass away.”’”
14 Why are we sitting still?
aAssemble yourselves, and let us bgo into the fortified cities
And let us perish there,
Because the Lord our God has doomed us
And given us cpoisoned water to drink,
For dwe have sinned against the Lord.
15 We awaited for peace, but no good came;
For a time of healing, but behold, terror!
16 From aDan is heard the snorting of his horses;
At the sound of the neighing of his bstallions
The whole land quakes;
For they come and cdevour the land and its fullness,
The city and its inhabitants.
17 “For behold, I am asending serpents against you,
Adders, for which there is bno charm,
And they will bite you,” declares the Lord.
18 My asorrow is beyond healing,
My bheart is faint within me!
19 Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a adistant land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not within her?”
“Why have they bprovoked Me with their graven images, with foreign cidols?”
20 “Harvest is past, summer is ended,
And we are not saved.”
21 For the abrokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken;
I bmourn, dismay has taken hold of me.
22 Is there no abalm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
bWhy then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?
A Lament over Zion
aOh that my head were waters
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For the slain of the bdaughter of my people!
2 aOh that I had in the desert
A wayfarers’ lodging place;
That I might leave my people
And go from them!
For all of them are badulterers,
An assembly of ctreacherous men.
3 “They abend their tongue like their bow;
Lies and not truth prevail in the land;
For they bproceed from evil to evil,
And they cdo not know Me,” declares the Lord.
4 “Let everyone abe on guard against his neighbor,
And bdo not trust any brother;
Because every cbrother deals craftily,
And every neighbor dgoes about as a slanderer.
5 “Everyone adeceives his neighbor
And does not speak the truth,
They have taught their tongue to speak lies;
They bweary themselves committing iniquity.
6 “Your adwelling is in the midst of deceit;
Through deceit they brefuse to know Me,” declares the Lord.
7 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts,
“Behold, I will refine them and aassay them;
For bwhat else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?
8 “Their atongue is a deadly arrow;
It speaks deceit;
With his mouth one bspeaks peace to his neighbor,
But inwardly he csets an ambush for him.
9 “aShall I not punish them for these things?” declares the Lord.
“On a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?
10 “For the amountains I will take up a weeping and wailing,
And for the pastures of the bwilderness a dirge,
Because they are claid waste so that no one passes through,
And the lowing of the cattle is not heard;
Both the dbirds of the sky and the beasts have fled; they are gone.
11 “I will make Jerusalem a aheap of ruins,
A haunt of bjackals;
And I will make the cities of Judah a cdesolation, without inhabitant.”
12 Who is the awise man that may understand this? And who is he to whom bthe mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? cWhy is the land ruined, laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through? 13 The Lord said, “Because they have aforsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it, 14 but have awalked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the bBaals, as their cfathers taught them,” 15 therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, aI will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them bpoisoned water to drink. 16 I will ascatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the bsword after them until I have annihilated them.”
17 Thus says the Lord of hosts,
“Consider and call for the amourning women, that they may come;
And send for the bwailing women, that they may come!
18 “Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us,
That our aeyes may shed tears
And our eyelids flow with water.
19 “For a voice of awailing is heard from Zion,
‘bHow are we ruined!
We are put to great shame,
For we have cleft the land,
Because they have cast down our dwellings.’”
20 Now hear the word of the Lord, O you awomen,
And let your ear receive the word of His mouth;
Teach your daughters wailing,
And everyone her neighbor a dirge.
21 For adeath has come up through our windows;
It has entered our palaces
To cut off the bchildren from the streets,
The young men from the town squares.
22 Speak, “Thus says the Lord,
‘The corpses of men will fall alike dung on the open field,
And like the sheaf after the reaper,
But no one will gather them.’”
23 Thus says the Lord, “aLet not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the bmighty man boast of his might, let not a crich man boast of his riches; 24 but let him who boasts aboast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who bexercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I cdelight in these things,” declares the Lord.
25 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet auncircumcised— 26 Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the sons of Ammon, and Moab and aall those inhabiting the desert who clip the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are buncircumcised of heart.”