Jeremiah’s Message at the Temple Gate

The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH, saying: 2“Stand in the gate of the house of YHWH, and proclaim there this word, and say: Hear the word of YHWH, all of Judah who enter these gates to worship before YHWH! 3Thus says YHWH of Hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your⁺ ways and your⁺ deeds, and I will make you⁺ dwell in this place. 4Do not trust in words of deception, saying,

‘The temple of YHWH, the temple of YHWH,

the temple of YHWH are they.’

5For if you⁺ thoroughly amend your⁺ ways and your⁺ deeds; if you⁺ thoroughly do justice between a man and between his neighbor; 6if the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, you would not oppress, and innocent blood you would not pour out in this place, and you⁺ would not walk, after other gods to your⁺ own harm, 7then I will make you⁺ dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your⁺ fathers, from forever and even to forever.

8Behold, you⁺ keep trusting for yourselves in words of deception that do not profit. 9Are you stealing, murdering, and committing adultery, and swearing by deception, and burning incense to Baal, and walking after other gods whom you do not know, 10and then come and stand before My face in this house, over which is called My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—In order to do all these abominations? 11Has this house, over which is called My name, become a den of robbers† in your⁺ eyes? Behold, even I have seen it! A declaration of YHWH.

12But go now to My place that is in Shiloh, where I set My name there at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel! 13And now, because you⁺ have done all these deeds, a declaration of YHWH, and I spoke to you⁺, rising up early and speaking, you would not hear; and I called to you⁺, and you⁺ have not answered. 14And I will do to this house, on which is called My name, which you⁺ trust in it, and this place that I gave to you⁺ and to your⁺ fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. 15And I will cast you out from before My face, as I have cast out all your⁺ brothers, all the seed of Ephraim.

Judah’s Idolatry Persists

16And you should not pray for this people, and not lift up for them a cry or a prayer, and you should not intercede to Me, for I will not hear you. 17Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18The sons gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger. 19Do they provoke Me to anger? A declaration of YHWH. Is it not themselves, to the shame of their own faces?

20Therefore thus says the Lord YHWH: Behold, My anger and My fury are being poured out toward this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the tree of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it will burn, and not be extinguished.

21Thus says YHWH of Hosts, the God of Israel: Add your⁺ burnt offerings to your⁺ sacrifices, and eat the flesh. 22For I did not speak to your⁺ fathers, and I did not command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning the matters of burnt offering and sacrifice. 23But only this thing did I command them, saying: Listen to My voice, and I will be your⁺ God, and you⁺ will be My people; and walk in all the ways that I have commanded you⁺, that it may go well for you⁺.

24And they did not listen, and they did not incline their ear, and they walked in the counsels in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and they went backward and not forward. 25From the day that your⁺ fathers came from the land of Egypt, until this day, I have even sent to you⁺ all My servants the prophets, each day rising up early and sending them. 26And they did not listen to Me, and they did not incline their ear, and they stiffened their neck—they did worse than their fathers!

27And you shall speak to them all these words, and they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, and they will not answer you. And you shall say to them: ‘This is a nation that does not listen to the voice of YHWH their God, and it does not receive correction; the truth has perished and is cut off from their mouth. 29Cut off your consecrated hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the barren heights; for YHWH has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath!’

The Valley of Slaughter

30For the sons of Judah have done evil in My eyes, a declaration of YHWH; they have set their abominations in the house over which My name is called, to defile it. 31And 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, and it did not come into My heart!

32Therefore, behold, the days are coming, a declaration of YHWH, and it will no longer called Tophet, or the Valley of the son of Hinnom, but instead the Valley of Slaughter, and they will bury in Tophet until there is no room! 33The corpses of this people will be for food for the birds of the heavens and for the beast of the earth, and there will no one to scare them away.

34And I will cause to cease 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 land will be for a desolation.”