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False Trust in the Temple

¹ This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord^(C1) and there call out this word: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the Lord.

³ “‘This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Correct your ways and your actions,^(C1) and I will allow you to live in this place. ⁴ Do not trust deceitful words, chanting, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.” ⁵ Instead, if you really correct your ways and your actions, if you act justly toward one another,^{(F1)(C1) 6} if you no longer oppress the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow^(C1) and no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods, bringing harm on yourselves, ⁷ I will allow you to live in this place, the land I gave to your ancestors^(C1) long ago and forever. ⁸ But look, you keep trusting in deceitful words that cannot help.

⁹ “‘Do you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known?^{(C1) 10} Then do you come and stand before me in this house^(C1) that bears my name and say, “We are rescued, so we can continue doing all these detestable acts”? ¹¹ Has this house, which bears my name, become a den of robbers^(C1) in your view? Yes, I too have seen it.^(C2)

This is the Lord’s declaration.

Shiloh as a Warning

¹² “‘But return to my place that was at Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first.^(C1) See what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. ¹³ Now, because you have done all these things—this is the Lord’s declaration—and because I have spoken to you time and time again^(F1) but you wouldn’t listen,^(C1) and I have called to you, but you wouldn’t answer,^{(C2) 14} what I did to Shiloh I will do to the house that bears my name^(C1)—the house in which you trust—the place that I gave you and your ancestors. ¹⁵ I will banish you from my presence, just as I banished all of your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.’^(C1)

Do Not Pray for Judah

¹⁶ “As for you, do not pray for these people.^(C1) Do not offer a cry or a prayer on their behalf, and do not beg me,^(C2) for I will not listen to you.^{(C3) 17} Don’t you see how they behave in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven,^(F1)(C1) and they pour out drink offerings to other gods so that they provoke me to anger. ¹⁹ But are they really provoking me?” ^(C1) This is the Lord’s declaration. “Isn’t it they themselves being provoked to disgrace?”

²⁰ Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “Look, my anger—my burning wrath—is about to be poured out on this place,^(C1) on people and animals, on the tree of the field, and on the produce of the land. My wrath will burn and not be quenched.”^(C2)

Obedience over Sacrifice

²¹ This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves,^{(C1) 22} for when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them^(C1) or command them concerning burnt offering and sacrifice. ²³ However, I did give them this command: ‘Obey me, and then I will be your God, and you will be my people. Follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you.’^{(C1) 24} Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention^(C1) but followed their own advice and their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward.^{(C2) 25} Since the day your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until today, I have sent all my servants the prophets^(C1) to you time and time again.^{(F1)(C2) 26} However, my people wouldn’t listen to me or pay attention but became obstinate;^(F1)(C1) they did more evil than their ancestors.^(C2)

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. ²⁸ Therefore, declare to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the Lord their God and would not accept discipline. Truth^(F1) has perished—it has disappeared from their mouths. ²⁹ Cut off the hair of your sacred vow^(F1)(C1) and throw it away. Raise up a dirge on the barren heights,^(C2) for the Lord has rejected and abandoned the generation under his wrath.’^(C3)

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^(C1) in the house that bears my name in order to defile it.^{(C2) 31} They have built the high places of Topheth^(F1)(C1) in Ben Hinnom Valley^(F2)(C2) in order to burn their sons and daughters in the fire,^(C3) a thing I did not command; I never entertained the thought.^(F3)

³² “Therefore, look, the days are coming”^(C1)—the Lord’s declaration—“when this place will no longer be called Topheth and Ben Hinnom Valley, but the Valley of Slaughter.^(C2) Topheth will become a cemetery,^(F1) because there will be no other burial place. ³³ The 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.^{(C1) 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,^(C1) for the land will become a desolate waste.^(C2)