Jeremiah 7:24–34

²⁴Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention^ac but followed their own advice and their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward.^{ad 25}Since the day your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until today, I have sent all my servants the prophets^ae to you time and time again.^{Caf 26}However, my people wouldn’t listen to me or pay attention but became obstinate;^ag they did more evil than their ancestors.^ah

A LAMENT FOR DISOBEDIENT JUDAH

²⁷“When you speak all these things to them, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer you. ²⁸Therefore, declare to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the Lord their God and would not accept discipline. Truth^D has perished—it has disappeared from their mouths. ²⁹Cut off the hair of your sacred vow^Ea and throw it away. Raise up a dirge on the barren heights,^b for the Lord has rejected and abandoned the generation under his wrath.’^c

³⁰“For the Judeans have done what is evil in my sight.” This is the Lord’s declaration. “They have set up their abhorrent things^d in the house that bears my name in order to defile it.^{e 31}They have built the high places of Topheth^Af in Ben Hinnom Valley^Bg in order to burn their sons and daughters in the fire,^h a thing I did not command; I never entertained the thought.

³²“Therefore, look, the days are coming”ⁱ—the Lord’s declaration—“when this place will no longer be called Topheth and Ben Hinnom Valley, but Slaughter Valley.^j Topheth will become a cemetery,^C because there will be no other burial place. ³³The corpses of these people will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land, with no one to scare them away.^{k 34}I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and gladness and the voices of the groom and the bride,^l for the land will become a desolate waste.^m