Jeremiah - The Old Testament

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

² 'Stand at the gate of the Temple of Yahweh and there proclaim this message. Say, "Listen to the word of Yahweh, all you of Judah who come in by these gates to worship Yahweh.

³ Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Amend your behaviour and your actions and I will let you stay in this place.

⁴ Do not put your faith in delusive words, such as: This is Yahweh's sanctuary, Yahweh's sanctuary, Yahweh's sanctuary!

⁵ But if you really amend your behaviour and your actions, if you really treat one another fairly,

⁶ if you do not exploit the stranger, the orphan and the widow, if you do not shed innocent blood in this place and if you do not follow other gods, to your own ruin,

⁷ then I shall let you stay in this place, in the country I gave for ever to your ancestors of old.

⁸ Look, you are putting your faith in delusive, worthless words!

⁹ Steal, would you, murder, commit adultery, perjure yourselves, burn incense to Baal, follow other gods of whom you know nothing? -

¹⁰ and then come and stand before me in this Temple that bears my name, saying: Now we are safe to go on doing all these loathsome things!

¹¹ Do you look on this Temple that bears my name as a den of bandits? I, at any rate, can see straight, Yahweh declares.

¹² "Now go to the place which used to be mine at Shiloh, where I once gave my name a home; see what I have done to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel!

¹³ And now, since you have done all these things, Yahweh declares, and refused to listen when I spoke so urgently, so persistently, or to answer when I called you,

¹⁴ I shall treat this Temple that bears my name, and in which you put your heart, the place that I gave you and your ancestors, just as I treated Shiloh,

¹⁵ and I shall drive you out of my sight, as I did all your kinsfolk, the whole race of Ephraim."

¹⁶ 'You, for your part, must not intercede for this people, nor raise either plea or prayer on their behalf; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you.

¹⁷ Can you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁸ The children collect the wood, the fathers light the fire, the women knead the dough, to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven; and, to spite me, they pour libations to alien gods.

¹⁹ Is it really me they spite, Yahweh demands, is it not in fact themselves, to their own confusion?

²⁰ So, Lord Yahweh says this, "My anger, my wrath will be poured down on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the countryside and the fruits of the soil; it will burn, and not be quenched."

²¹ 'Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat all the meat.

²² For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I said nothing to them, gave them no orders, about burnt offerings or sacrifices.

²³ My one command to them was this: Listen to my voice, then I will be your God and you shall be my people. In everything, follow the way that I mark out for you, and you shall prosper.

²⁴ But they did not listen, they did not pay attention; they followed their own devices, their own stubborn and wicked inclinations, and got worse rather than better.

²⁵ From the day your ancestors left Egypt until today, I have sent you all my servants the prophets, persistently sending them day after day.

²⁶ But they have not listened to me, have not paid attention; they have deliberately resisted, behaving worse than their ancestors.

²⁷ So you will tell them all this, but they will not listen to you; you will call them, but they will not answer you."

²⁸ Then you are to say to them, "This is the nation that will neither listen to the voice of Yahweh its God nor take correction. Sincerity is no more, it has vanished from their mouths.

²⁹ "Cut off your tresses, throw them away! On the bare heights raise a dirge, for Yahweh has rejected, has abandoned, a brood that enrages him!"

³⁰ 'Yes, the people of Judah have done what displeases me, Yahweh declares. They have set up their Horrors in the Temple that bears my name, to defile it,

³¹ and have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters: a thing I never ordered, that had never entered my thoughts.

³² So now the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when people will no longer say Topheth or Valley of Ben-Hinnom, but Valley of Slaughter. Topheth will become a burial ground, for lack of other space;

³³ the corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and the animals of earth, and there will be no one to drive them off.

³⁴ I shall silence the shouts of rejoicing and mirth and the voices of bridegroom and bride, in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the country will be reduced to desert.'