Jeremiah Speaks in the Temple
(Jeremiah 26.1-6)1-3 The Lord told me to stand by the gate of the temple and tell the people who were going in that the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, had said:
Pay attention, people of Judah! Change your ways and start living right, then I will let you keep on living in your own country. 4 Don't fool yourselves! My temple is here in Jerusalem, but that doesn't mean I will protect you. 5 I will keep you safe only if you change your ways and are fair and honest with each other. 6 Stop taking advantage of foreigners, orphans, and widows. Don't kill innocent people. And stop worshiping other gods. 7 Then I will let you enjoy a long life in this land I gave your ancestors.
8 But just look at what is happening! You put your trust in worthless lies. 9 You steal and murder; you lie in court and are unfaithful in marriage. You worship idols and offer incense to Baal, when these gods have never done anything for you. 10 And then you come into my temple and worship me! Do you think I will protect you so that you can go on sinning? 11 You are thieves, and you have made my temple your hideout. But I've seen everything you have done.
12 Go to Shiloh, where my sacred tent once stood. Take a look at what I did there. My people Israel sinned, and so I destroyed Shiloh!
13 While you have been sinning, I have been trying to talk to you, but you refuse to listen. 14 Don't think this temple will protect you. Long ago I told your ancestors to build it and worship me here, but now I have decided to tear it down, just as I destroyed Shiloh. 15 And as for you, people of Judah, I'm going to send you away from my land, just as I sent away the people of Ephraim and the other northern tribes.
Punishment for Worshiping Other Gods
16 Jeremiah, don't pray for these people! I, the Lord, would refuse to listen. 17 Do you see what the people of Judah are doing in their towns and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 Children gather firewood, their fathers build fires, and their mothers mix dough to bake bread for the goddess they call the Queen of Heaven. They even offer wine sacrifices to other gods, just to insult me. 19 But they are not only insulting me; they are also harming themselves by doing these shameful things.
20 And now, I, the Lord All-Powerful, will flood Judah with my fiery anger until nothing is left—no people or animals, no trees or crops.
It Is Useless To Offer Sacrifices
21 The Lord told me to say to the people of Judah:
I am the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, but I won't accept sacrifices from you. So don't even bother bringing them to me. You might as well just cook the meat for yourselves.
22 At the time I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I didn't command them to offer sacrifices to me. 23 Instead, I told them, “If you listen to me and do what I tell you, I will be your God, you will be my people, and all will go well for you.” 24 But your ancestors refused to listen. They were stubborn, and whenever I wanted them to go one way, they always went the other. 25 Ever since your ancestors left Egypt, I have been sending my servants the prophets to speak for me. 26 But you have ignored me and become even more stubborn and sinful than your ancestors ever were!
Slaughter Valley
The Lord said:
27 Jeremiah, no matter what you do, the people won't listen. 28 So you must say to them:
People of Judah, I am the Lord your God, but you have refused to obey me, and you didn't change when I punished you. And now, you no longer even pretend to be faithful to me.
29 Shave your head bald
and throw away the hair.
Sing a funeral song
on top of a barren hill.
You people have made me angry,
and I have abandoned you.
30 You have disobeyed me by putting your disgusting idols in my temple, and now the temple itself is disgusting to me. 31 At Topheth in Hinnom Valley you have built altars where you kill your children and burn them as sacrifices to other gods. I would never think of telling you to do this. 32 So watch out! Someday that place will no longer be called Topheth or Hinnom Valley. It will be called Slaughter Valley, because you will bury your dead there until you run out of room, 33 and then bodies will lie scattered on the ground. Birds and wild animals will come and eat, and no one will be around to scare them off. 34 When I am finished with your land, there will be deathly silence in the empty ruins of Jerusalem and the towns of Judah—no happy voices, no sounds of parties or wedding celebrations.
1 The woordes that came to Ieremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 Stand in the gate of the Lordes house and crie this woorde there, and say, Heare the woorde of the Lord, all yee of Iudah that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. 3 Thus sayeth the Lord of hostes, the God of Israel, Amend your waies and your woorkes, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 Trust not in lying woordes, saying, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord: this is the Temple of the Lord. 5 For if you amende and redresse your waies and your woorkes: if you execute iudgement betweene a man and his neighbour, 6 And oppresse not the stranger, the fatherlesse and the widow and shed no innocent blood in this place, neither walke after other gods to your destruction, 7 Then will I let you dwell in this place in the lande that I gaue vnto your fathers, for euer and euer. 8 Beholde, you trust in lying woordes, that can not profite. 9 Will you steale, murder, and commit adulterie, and sweare falsely and burne incense vnto Baal, and walke after other gods whome yee knowe not? 10 And come and stande before mee in this House, whereupon my Name is called, and saye, We are deliuered, though we haue done all these abominations? 11 Is this House become a denne of theeues, whereupon my Name is called before your eyes? Beholde, euen I see it, sayeth the Lord. 12 But go ye nowe vnto my place which was in Shilo, where I set my Name at the beginning, and beholde, what I did to it for the wickednesse of my people Israel. 13 Therefore nowe because yee haue done all these woorkes, sayeth the Lord, (and I rose vp earely and spake vnto you: but when I spake, yee would not heare me, neither when I called, would yee answere). 14 Therefore will I do vnto this House, wherupon my Name is called, wherein also yee trust, euen vnto the place that I gaue to you and to your fathers, as I haue done vnto Shilo. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I haue cast out all your brethren, euen the whole seede of Ephraim. 16 Therfore thou shalt not pray for this people, neither lift vp crie or praier for them neither intreat me, for I will not heare thee. 17 Seest thou not what they doe in the cities of Iudah and in the streetes of Ierusalem? 18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knede the dough to make cakes to the Queene of heauen and to powre out drinke offrings vnto other gods, that they may prouoke me vnto anger. 19 Doe they prouoke me to anger, sayeth the Lord, and not themselues to the confusion of their owne faces? 20 Therefore thus sayeth the Lord God, Beholde, mine anger and my wrath shall be powred vpon this place, vpon man and vpon beast, and vpon the tree of the fielde, and vpon the fruite of the grounde, and it shall burne and not bee quenched. 21 Thus sayth the Lord of hostes, the God of Israel, Put your burnt offerings vnto your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. 22 For I spake not vnto your fathers, nor commanded them, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offrings and sacrifices. 23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voyce, and I will be your God, and yee shalbe my people: and walke yee in all the wayes which I haue commanded you, that it may be well vnto you. 24 But they would not obey, nor incline their eare, but went after the counsels and the stubbernesse of their wicked heart, and went backewarde and not forwarde. 25 Since the day that your fathers came vp out of the lande of Egypt, vnto this day, I haue euen sent vnto you al my seruants the Prophets, rising vp earely euery day, and sending them. 26 Yet would they not heare me nor encline their eare, but hardened their necke and did worse then their fathers. 27 Therefore shalt thou speake al these words vnto them, but they will not heare thee: thou shalt also crie vnto them, but they will not answere thee. 28 But thou shalt say vnto them, This is a nation that heareth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiueth discipline: trueth is perished, and is cleane gone out of their mouth. 29 Cut off thine heare, O Ierusalem, and cast it away, and take vp a complaint on the hie places: for the Lord hath reiected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. 30 For the children of Iudah haue done euill in my sight, sayth the Lord: they haue set their abominations in the House, whereupon my Name is called, to pollute it. 31 And they haue built the hie place of Topheth, which is in the valley of Ben-Hinnom to burne their sonnes and their daughters in the fire, which I commanded them not, neither came it in mine heart. 32 Therefore beholde, the dayes come, sayeth the Lord, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall burie in Topheth til there be no place. 33 And ye carkeises of this people shalbe meat for the foules of the heauen and for the beastes of the earth, and none shall fraie them away. 34 Then I will cause to cease from the cities of Iudah and from the streetes of Ierusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladnesse, the voice of the bridegrom and the voice of the bride: for the lande shalbe desolate.