Jeremiah 7–8

7The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ^2aStand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. ³Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ^bAmend your ways and your doings, and ^cI will cause you to dwell in this place. ^4dTrust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these. ⁵For if ye ^bthroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye ^ethroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; ⁶If ^fye oppress not ^ethe stranger, ^egthe fatherless, and the widow, and ^eshed not innocent blood in this place, ^hneither walk after other gods ⁱto your hurt: ^7ckThen will I cause you to dwell in this place, in ^kkthe land ^kthat I gave to your fathers, ^lfor ever and ever.

⁸Behold, ^dye trust in ^mlying words, that cannot profit. ⁹Will ye ⁿsteal, murder, and commit adultery, and ^oswear falsely, and ^pburn incense unto Baal, and ^hwalk after other gods whom ye know not; ¹⁰And come and stand before me in this house, ^†which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? ¹¹Is ^qthis house, which is called by my name, become ^ra den of ^srobbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord. ¹²But go ye now unto ^tmy place which was in ^tuShiloh, ^vwhere I set my name at the first, and see ^wwhat I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. ¹³And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, ^xrising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and ^yI called you, but ye answered not; ¹⁴Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto ^zthe place which I gave to you and to your fathers, ^was I have done to Shiloh. ¹⁵And I will cast you out of my sight, ^aas I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of ^bEphraim. ^16cTherefore ^dpray not thou for this people, ^cneither lift up ^ecry nor prayer for them, neither ^fmake intercession to me: ^cfor I will not hear thee. ¹⁷Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women ^gknead their dough, ^hto make cakes to the ^||iqueen of heaven, and ^hkto pour out drink offerings unto other gods, ^lthat they may provoke me to anger. ^19mDo they provoke me to anger? saith the Lord: ⁿdo they not provoke themselves ^oto the confusion of their own faces? ²⁰Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, ^pmine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, ^ppand upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, ^pqand shall not be quenched.

²¹Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; ^rPut your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and ^rreat flesh. ^22sFor I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, ^t†concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: ²³But this thing commanded I them, saying, ^suObey my voice, and ^vI will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and ^wwalk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that ^xit may be well unto you. ^24yBut they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, ^ybut ^zwalked in the counsels and ^ain the ^||imagination of their evil heart, and ^†bwent backward, and not forward. ²⁵Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day ^cI have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, ^cddaily rising up early and sending them: ^26eYet they hearkened not unto me, ^enor inclined their ear, but ^fhardened their neck: ^gthey did worse than their fathers. ²⁷Therefore ^hthou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: ⁱthou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee. ²⁸But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, ^knor receiveth ^||correction: ^ltruth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

^29mCut off thine ⁿhair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on ^ohigh places; for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. ³⁰For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the Lord: ^pthey have set their abominations in the house ^qwhich is called by my name, ^pto pollute it. ^31rAnd they have built the high places of ^sTophet, which is in ^tthe valley of the son of Hinnom, ^uto burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; ^rvwhich I commanded them not, neither ^†came it into my heart. ^32wTherefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called ^sTophet, nor ^tthe valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: ^xfor they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place. ³³And ^ythe carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; ^zand none shall ^afray them away. ³⁴Then will ^bI cause to ^ccease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, ^cthe voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, ^dthe voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for ^ethe land shall be desolate.

8At that time, saith the Lord, ^athey shall bring out the bones of ^bthe kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves: ²And ^cthey shall spread them before ^dthe sun, and the moon, and ^dall the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and ^dewhom they have worshipped: ^fthey shall not be gathered, ^gnor be buried; ^hthey shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. ³And ⁱdeath shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all ^kthe places whither I have driven them, saith the Lord of hosts.

⁴Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord; ^lShall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return? ⁵Why then is this people of Jerusalem ^mslidden back by a perpetual ⁿbacksliding? ^othey hold fast deceit, ^pthey refuse to return. ⁶I ^qhearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to ^rhis course, as the horse ^srusheth ^tinto the battle. ⁷Yea, ^uthe ^vstork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and ^ythe turtle and ^zthe crane and ^zthe swallow observe the time of their coming; but ^uamy people know not the judgment of the Lord. ⁸How do ye say, We are wise, and ^bthe law of the Lord is with us? Lo, certainly ^||in vain made he it; ^cthe pen of the scribes is in vain. ^9||dThe wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and ^etaken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and ^†what wisdom is in them? ¹⁰Therefore ^fwill I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. ¹¹For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. ¹²Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, ^gthey were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. ^13||I will surely consume them, saith the Lord: ^hthere shall be ^ikno grapes on the vine, ^knor figs on the fig tree, and ^lthe leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them. ¹⁴Why do we sit still? ^massemble yourselves, and ^mlet us enter into the defenced cities, and ⁿlet us be silent there: for the Lord our God hath put us to silence, and given us ^owater of ^||gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord. ^15pWe looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of ^qhealth, and behold trouble! ^16rThe snorting of his horses was heard ^sfrom Dan: ^tthe whole land trembled at the sound of ^uthe neighing of ^vhis strong ones; for they are come, and ^vvhave devoured the land, and ^†all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein. ¹⁷For, behold, ^wI will send serpents, ^xcockatrices, among you, which will not be ^ycharmed, and ^zthey shall bite you, saith the Lord.

¹⁸When I would comfort myself against sorrow, ^amy heart is faint ^†in me. ¹⁹Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people ^†because of them that dwell in ^ca far country: Is not the Lord in Zion? is not ^bher king in her? Why have they ^dprovoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities? ²⁰The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. ^21eFor the hurt of ^efthe daughter of my people am I hurt; ^gI am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. ²²Is there no ^hbalm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not ⁱthe health of ^fthe daughter of my people ^†recovered?