Israel Must Not Trust in Lying Words

7 This word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ² “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house and make this word known: ‘Hear the Word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who go through these gates to worship the Lord!’” ³ The Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, “Change your ways and your works for the better, and I will let you live in this place. ⁴ Do not trust the lies that say, ‘This is the house of the Lord, the house of the Lord, the house of the Lord.’ ⁵ For if you for sure change your ways and what you do for the better, if you are fair as you judge between a man and his neighbor, ⁶ if you do not make it hard for the stranger from another land, or the child whose parents have died, or the woman whose husband has died, and do not kill those who are not guilty in this place, and stop going after other gods, for that will destroy you, ⁷ then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

⁸ “See, you are trusting in lies which cannot help you. ⁹ Will you steal, kill, do sex sins, make false promises, give gifts to the false god Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰ and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are safe and free!’ and still do all these hated sins? ¹¹ Has this house which is called by My name become a place of robbers in your eyes? See, I Myself have seen it,” says the Lord.

¹² “But go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a place for My name. And see what I did to it because of the sin of My people Israel. ¹³ Now you have done all these things,” says the Lord. “I spoke to you again and again, but you did not hear. I called you but you did not answer. ¹⁴ So as I did to Shiloh, I will do to the house that is called by My name and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave you and your fathers. ¹⁵ I will send you away from My eyes, as I have sent away all your brothers, all the children of Ephraim.

Israel Does Not Obey

¹⁶ “As for you, do not pray for these people. Do not lift up a cry or prayer for them. Do not speak with Me about them, 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. The fathers make the fire. And the women make bread and cakes for the queen of heaven. They pour out drink gifts to other gods to make Me angry. ¹⁹ Do they make Me angry?” says the Lord. “Is it not themselves they hurt, to their own shame?” ²⁰ So the Lord God says, “See, My anger will be poured out on this place, on man and animal, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. It will burn and not be stopped.”

²¹ The Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, “Add your burnt gifts to the animals you kill on the altar, and eat the flesh. ²² For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to them or tell them what to do about burnt gifts and animals killed on the altar. ²³ But I did tell them, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. Walk in all the way that I tell you, that it may be well with you.’ ²⁴ Yet they did not obey or listen, but walked in the way they wanted to and in the strong-will of their sinful heart. They only stepped back and did not go on. ²⁵ Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants who speak for Me. I have risen up early and sent them day after day. ²⁶ Yet they did not listen to Me or turn their ear to Me, but made their neck hard. They sinned more than their fathers.

Israel’s Sinful Actions

²⁷ “You will speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You will call to them, but they will not answer you. ²⁸ And you will say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God or receive His strong teaching. They have lost the truth. It has been cut off from their mouth. ²⁹ Cut off your hair and throw it away. And cry in sorrow on the open hill-tops. For the Lord has turned away and left the people who made Him angry.’ ³⁰ For the sons of Judah have done what is sinful in My eyes,” says the Lord. “They have put their hated things in the house that is called by My name, to make it unclean. ³¹ And they have built the high places of Topheth, in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire. I did not tell them to do this. It did not come into My mind. ³² So the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when it will not be called Topheth any more, or the valley of the son of Hinnom. But it will be called the valley of Killing. For they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place. ³³ The dead bodies of these people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the earth. And no one will send them away in fear. ³⁴ Then in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, I will put an end to the voice of joy and the voice of happiness, the voice of the man to be married and the voice of the bride. For the land will become a waste.

8 “At that time,” says the Lord, “they will bring out the bones of the kings and leaders of Judah, the bones of the religious leaders, the bones of the men of God, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem from their graves. ² And they will spread them out to the sun, the moon, and to all the stars of heaven. For these they have loved, and served, and followed, and looked for, and worshiped. The bones will not be gathered or buried. They will be as animal waste on top of the ground. ³ And death will be chosen instead of life by all those who are left of this sinful family in all the places where I have driven them,” says the Lord of All.

Sin and Its Punishment

⁴ “You will say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: “Do men fall and not get up again? Does one turn away and not return? ⁵ Why then have the people of Jerusalem always turned away from Me? They hold on to what is false, and will not return. ⁶ I have listened and heard, but they have not said what is right. No man turned from his sinful way, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Every one turns to his own way like a horse running into battle. ⁷ Even the stork in the sky knows her times. And the turtle-dove, crane, and swallow keep the time of their coming. But My people do not know the Law of the Lord.

⁸ “How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the Law of the Lord is with us’? See, the lying hand of the writers has made it into a lie. ⁹ The wise men are put to shame. They are troubled and taken. See, they have turned away from the Word of the Lord, and what kind of wisdom do they have? ¹⁰ So I will give their wives to others, and their fields to new owners. Because from the least to the greatest, every one is always wanting much. From the man of God to the religious leader, no one can be trusted in what he does. ¹¹ They have healed the hurt of My people very little, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. ¹² Were they ashamed because of the hated sin they had done? They were not ashamed at all. They did not even know how to turn red. So they will fall among those who fall. When I punish them, they will be put down,” says the Lord.

¹³ “For sure I will take them away,” says the Lord. “There will be no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig tree, and the leaves will dry up. What I have given them will pass away.” ¹⁴ Why are we sitting here? Gather together, and let us go into the strong cities and die there. For the Lord our God has given us up to die. He has given us poison in our water to drink, for we have sinned against Him. ¹⁵ We waited for peace, but no good came. We waited for a time of healing, but see, there is much trouble. ¹⁶ The noise of his horses is heard from Dan. The whole land shakes at the sound of his war horses. For they come and destroy the land and everything that is in it, the city and those who live in it. ¹⁷ “For see, I am sending the worst of snakes against you, poison snakes which cannot be stopped. And they will bite you,” says the Lord.

¹⁸ My sorrow is too much to heal. My heart is weak within me. ¹⁹ Listen! It is the cry of my people from a far away land: “Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” “Why have they made Me angry with their objects of worship, and with strange gods?” ²⁰ “Gathering time is past, summer is ended, and we are not saved.” ²¹ I am hurt because my people are hurt. I am filled with sorrow, and fear has taken hold of me. ²² Is there no healing oil in Gilead? Is there no doctor there? Why then have my people not been healed?