Jeremiah 7:24–34

²⁴Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but, in the stubbornness of their evil will, they walked in their own counsels and looked backward rather than forward.^{* 25}From the day that your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day,^{* 26}yet they did not listen to me or pay attention, but they stiffened their necks. They did worse than their ancestors did.^*

²⁷So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you.^{* 28}You shall say to them: This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.^*

²⁹Cut off your hair and throw it away;

raise a lamentation on the bare heights,^c

for the Lord has rejected and forsaken

the generation that provoked his wrath.^*

³⁰For the people of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord; they have set their abominations in the house that is called by my name, defiling it.^{* 31}And they go on building the high place^d of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire—which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind.^{* 32}Therefore the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when it will no more be called Topheth or the valley of the son of Hinnom but the valley of Slaughter, for they will bury in Topheth until there is no more room.^{* 33}The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the air and for the animals of the earth, and no one will frighten them away. ³⁴And I will bring to an end the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of the bride and bridegroom in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, for the land shall become a waste.^*