Yirmeyahu 7 ירמיהו ז׳

The word that came to Yirmeyahu from the Lord, saying,

Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all Yehuda, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

Trust not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.

For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbour;

if you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:

then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

Behold, you trust in lying words, that cannot profit.

Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to the Ba῾al, and walk after other gods whom you know not;

and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered; that you may do all these abominations?

Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, says the Lord.

But go now to my place which was in Shilo, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Yisra᾽el.

And now, because you have done all these deeds, says the Lord, and though I spoke to you, from morning till night, but you did not listen; and I called you, but you did not answer;

therefore will I do to this house, which is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shilo.

And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, the whole seed of Efrayim.

Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.

Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Yehuda and in the streets of Yerushalayim?

The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

Do they provoke me to anger? says the Lord: do they not provoke themselves to their own disgrace?

Therefore thus says the Lord God; Behold, my anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat meat.

For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Miżrayim, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:

but this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice, and I 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.

But they did not hearken, nor incline their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

From the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Miżrayim to this day I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them from morning till night.

Yet they did not hearken to me, nor incline their ear, but stiffened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.

Therefore thou shalt speak all these words to them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call to them; but they will not answer thee.

But thou shalt say to them, This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord their God, nor does it receive correction: truthfulness is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

Cut off thy hair, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the high hills; for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

For the children of Yehuda have done evil in my sight, says the Lord: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.

And they have built the high places of Tofet, which is in the valley of Ben-hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command them, nor did it come into my heart.

Therefore, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, it shall no more be called Tofet, nor the valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Tofet, because there is no room.

And the carcasses of this people shall be food for the birds of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them away.

Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Yehuda, and from the streets of Yerushalayim, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.