Jeremiah Speaks at the Temple

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²Stand at the gate of the House of the Lord, and there proclaim this word: Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord!

³Thus said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Mend your ways and your actions, and I will let you dwell in this place. ⁴Don’t put your trust in illusions and say, “The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord are these [buildings].” ⁵No, if you really mend your ways and your actions; if you execute justice between one man and another; ⁶if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow; if you do not shed the blood of the innocent in this place; if you do not follow other gods, to your own hurt—⁷then only will I let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers for all time. ⁸See, you are relying on illusions that are of no avail. ⁹Will you steal and murder and commit adultery and swear falsely, and sacrifice to Baal, and follow other gods whom you have not experienced, ¹⁰and then come and stand before Me in this House which bears My name and say, “We are safe”?—[Safe] to do all these abhorrent things! ¹¹Do you consider this House, which bears My name, to be a den of thieves? As for Me, I have been watching—declares the Lord.

¹²Just go to My place at Shiloh, where I had established My name formerly, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. ¹³And now, because you do all these things—declares the Lord— and though I spoke to you persistently, you would not listen; and though I called to you, you would not re-spond—¹⁴therefore I will do to the House which bears My name, on which you rely, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, just what I did to Shiloh. ¹⁵And I will cast you out of My presence as I cast out your brothers, the whole brood of Ephraim.

¹⁶As for you, do not pray for this people, do not raise a cry of prayer on their behalf, do not plead with Me; for I will not listen to you. ¹⁷Don’t you see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸The children gather sticks, the fathers build the fire, and the mothers knead dough, to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven,^a and they pour libations to other gods, to vex Me. ¹⁹Is it Me they are vexing?—says the Lord. It is rather themselves, to their own disgrace. ²⁰Assuredly, thus said the Lord God: My wrath and My fury will be poured out upon this place, on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the soil. It shall burn, with none to quench it.

²¹Thus said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat! ²²For when I freed your fathers from the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them or command them concerning burnt offerings or sacrifice. ²³But this is what I commanded them: Do My bidding, that I may be your God and you may be My people; walk only in the way that I enjoin upon you, that it may go well with you. ²⁴Yet they did not listen or give ear; they followed their own counsels, the willfulness of their evil hearts. They have gone backward, not forward, ²⁵from the day your fathers left the land of Egypt until today. And though I kept sending all My servants, the prophets, to them daily and persistently, ²⁶they would not listen to Me or give ear. They stiffened their necks, they acted worse than their fathers. [ . . . ]

³⁰For the people of Judah have done what displeases Me—declares the Lord. They have set up their abominations in the House which is called by My name, and they have defiled it. ³¹And they have built the shrines of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in fire—which I never commanded, which never came to My mind. ³²Assuredly, a time is coming—declares the Lord— when men shall no longer speak of Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but of the Valley of Slaughter; and they shall bury in Topheth until no room is left. ³³The carcasses of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, with none to frighten them off. ³⁴And I will silence in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of bridegroom and bride. For the whole land shall fall to ruin.