Trusting in Lying Words

7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 a“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!’ ” 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: b“Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4 cDo not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.’

5 “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly dexecute 1judgment between a man and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, eor walk after other gods to your hurt, 7 fthen I will cause you to dwell in this place, in gthe land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

8 “Behold, you trust in hlying words that cannot profit. 9 iWill you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and jwalk after other gods whom you do not know, 10 kand then come and stand before Me in this house lwhich is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? 11 Has mthis house, which is called by My name, become a nden of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the Lord.

12 “But go now to oMy place which was in Shiloh, pwhere I set My name at the first, and see qwhat I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these works,” says the Lord, “and I spoke to you, rrising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I scalled you, but you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to tShiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of My sight, uas I have cast out all your brethren—vthe whole posterity of Ephraim.

16 “Therefore wdo not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; xfor I will not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 yThe children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they zpour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger. 19 aDo they provoke Me to anger?” says the Lord. “Do they not provoke themselves, to the shame of their own faces?”

20 Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place—on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and not be quenched.”

21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: b“Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. 22 cFor I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. 23 But this is what I commanded them, saying, d‘Obey My voice, and eI will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ 24 fYet they did not obey or incline their ear, but gfollowed 2the counsels and the 3dictates of their evil hearts, and hwent 4backward and not forward. 25 Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even isent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. 26 jYet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but kstiffened their neck. lThey did worse than their fathers.

27 “Therefore myou shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.

Judgment on Obscene Religion

28 “So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord their God nnor receive correction. oTruth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. 29 pCut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’ 30 For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the Lord. q“They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to 5pollute it. 31 And they have built the rhigh places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to sburn their sons and their daughters in the fire, twhich I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.

32 “Therefore behold, uthe days are coming,” says the Lord, “when it will no more be called Tophet, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; vfor they will bury in Tophet until there is no room. 33 The wcorpses of this people will be food for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. And no one will frighten them away. 34 Then I will cause to xcease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. For ythe land shall be desolate.

8 “At that time,” says the Lord, “they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its 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. 2 They shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served and after which they have walked, which they have sought and awhich they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered bnor buried; they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. 3 Then cdeath shall be chosen rather than life by all the 1residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says the Lord of hosts.

The Peril of False Teaching

4 “Moreover you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:

“Will they fall and not rise?

Will one turn away and not return?

5 Why has this people dslidden back,

Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding?

eThey hold fast to deceit,

fThey refuse to return.

6 gI listened and heard,

But they do not speak aright.

hNo man repented of his wickedness,

Saying, ‘What have I done?’

Everyone turned to his own course,

As the horse rushes into the battle.

7 “Even ithe stork in the heavens

Knows her appointed times;

And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow

Observe the time of their coming.

But jMy people do not know the judgment of the Lord.

8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise,

kAnd the law of the Lord is with us’?

Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood.

9 lThe wise men are ashamed,

They are dismayed and taken.

Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord;

So mwhat wisdom do they have?

10 Therefore nI will give their wives to others,

And their fields to those who will inherit them;

Because from the least even to the greatest

Everyone is given to ocovetousness;

From the prophet even to the priest

Everyone deals falsely.

11 For they have phealed the hurt of the daughter of My people 2slightly,

Saying, q‘Peace, peace!’

When there is no peace.

12 Were they rashamed when they had committed abomination?

No! They were not at all ashamed,

Nor did they know how to blush.

Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;

In the time of their punishment

They shall be cast down,” says the Lord.

13 “I will surely 3consume them,” says the Lord.

“No grapes shall be son the vine,

Nor figs on the tfig tree,

And the leaf shall fade;

And the things I have given them shall upass away from them.” ’ ”

14 “Why do we sit still?

vAssemble yourselves,

And let us enter the fortified cities,

And let us be silent there.

For the Lord our God has put us to silence

And given us wwater 4of gall to drink,

Because we have sinned against the Lord.

15 “We xlooked for peace, but no good came;

And for a time of health, and there was trouble!

16 The snorting of His horses was heard from yDan.

The whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of His zstrong ones;

For they have come and devoured the land and all that is in it,

The city and those who dwell in it.”

17 “For behold, I will send serpents among you,

Vipers which cannot be acharmed,

And they shall bite you,” says the Lord.

The Prophet Mourns for the People

18 I would comfort myself in sorrow;

My heart is faint in me.

19 Listen! The voice,

The cry of the daughter of My people—

From ba far country:

“Is not the Lord in Zion?

Is not her King in her?”

“Why have they provoked Me to anger

With their carved images—

With foreign idols?”

20 “The harvest is past,

The summer is ended,

And we are not saved!”

21 cFor the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt.

I am dmourning;

Astonishment has taken hold of me.

22 Is there no ebalm in Gilead,

Is there no physician there?

Why then is there no recovery

For the health of the daughter of my people?

9 Oh, athat my head were waters,

And my eyes a fountain of tears,

That I might weep day and night

For the slain of the daughter of my people!

2 Oh, that I had in the wilderness—

A lodging place for travelers;

That I might leave my people,

And go from them!

For bthey are all adulterers,

An assembly of treacherous men.

3 “And like their bow cthey have bent their tongues for lies.

They are not valiant for the truth on the earth.

For they proceed from devil to evil,

And they edo not know Me,” says the Lord.

4 “Everyone ftake heed to his 1neighbor,

And do not trust any brother;

For every brother will utterly supplant,

And every neighbor will gwalk with slanderers.

5 Everyone will hdeceive his neighbor,

And will not speak the truth;

They have taught their tongue to speak lies;

They weary themselves to commit iniquity.

6 Your dwelling place is in the midst of deceit;

Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” says the Lord.

7 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:

“Behold, iI will refine them and 2try them;

jFor how shall I deal with the daughter of My people?

8 Their tongue is an arrow shot out;

It speaks kdeceit;

One speaks lpeaceably to his neighbor with his mouth,

But 3in his heart he 4lies in wait.

9 mShall I not