Jeremiah 7:8-34

8“Behold, you are trusting in 1deceptive words to no avail. 9Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, 23offer sacrifices to Baal, and follow 4other gods that you have not known, 10then 5come and stand before Me in 6this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are saved!’--so that you may do all these abominations? 11Has 7this house, which is called by My name, become a 8den of robbers in your sight? Behold, 9I Myself have seen it,” declares the Lord.

12“But go now to My place which was in 10Shiloh, where I 11made My name dwell at the beginning, and 12see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. 13And now, because you have done all these things,” declares the Lord, “and I spoke to you, 13speaking again and again, but you did not listen, and I 14called you but you did not answer, 14therefore I will do to the 15house which is called by My name, 16in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, just as I 17did to Shiloh. 15I will 18hurl you out of My sight, just as I have hurled out all your brothers, all the 19descendants of 20Ephraim.

16“As for you, 21do not pray for this people, and do not lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not plead with Me; for I am not listening to you. 17Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18The 22children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven; and they 23pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to 24provoke Me to anger. 1925Are they provoking Me?” declares the Lord. “Is it not themselves instead, to their 26own 27shame?” 20Therefore this is what the Lord 28God says: “Behold, My 29anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on human and animal life, and on the 30trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched.”

21This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “Add your 31burnt offerings to your sacrifices and 32eat flesh. 22For I did not 33speak to your fathers, or command them on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23But this is 34what I commanded them, saying, ‘35Obey My voice, and 36I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you shall walk 37entirely in the way which I command you, so that it may 38go well for you.’ 24Yet they 39did not obey or incline their ear, but walked by their own advice and in the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and they 4041went backward and not forward. 25Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have 42sent you all My servants the prophets, sending them daily, again and again. 26Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but 43stiffened their neck; they 44did more evil than their fathers.

27“So you shall 45speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will 46not answer you. 28And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that 47did not obey the voice of the Lord their God or accept discipline; 4849trustworthiness has perished and has been eliminated from their mouth.2950Cut off 51your hair and throw it away, And 52take up a song of mourning on the bare heights; For the Lord has 53rejected and forsaken The generation of His wrath.’ 30For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight,” declares the Lord. “They have 54put their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. 31They have 55built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, to 56burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I 57did not command, and it did not come into My 58mind.

32“59Therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of the Slaughter; for they will 60bury in Topheth 61because there is no other place. 33The 62dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth; and no one will frighten them away. 34Then I will 63eliminate from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride; for the 64land will become a site of ruins.