Evil in the Land

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 ^j“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^kAmend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 ^lDo not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

5 “For if you truly ^mamend your ways and your deeds, if you truly ⁿexecute justice one with another, 6 if you ⁿdo not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, ^mor shed innocent blood in this place, ^oand if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, 7 ^pthen I will let you dwell in this place, ^qin the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 ^rWill you steal, murder, commit adultery, ^sswear falsely, ^tmake offerings to Baal, ^oand go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, ^uwhich is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 ^vHas this house, ^uwhich is called by my name, ^wbecome a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. 12 Go now to ^xmy place that was in Shiloh, ^ywhere I made my name dwell at first, and ^zsee what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and ^awhen I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and ^bwhen I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to ^cthe house ^uthat is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, ^zas I did to Shiloh. 15 ^cAnd I will cast you out of my sight, ^das I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of ^eEphraim.

16 “As for you, ^fdo not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, ^gand the women knead dough, to ^hmake cakes for ⁱthe queen of heaven. And ^jthey pour out drink offerings to other gods, ^kto provoke me to anger. 19 ^lIs it I whom they provoke? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, ^mto their own shame? 20 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, ⁿmy anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; ^oit will burn and not be quenched.”

21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^p“Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. 22 For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them ^qconcerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 But this command I gave them: ^r‘Obey my voice, and ^sI will be your God, and you shall be my people. ^tAnd walk in all the way that I command you, ^uthat it may be well with you.’ 24 ^vBut they did not obey or incline their ear, ^wbut walked in their own counsels and ^xthe stubbornness of their evil hearts, and ^ywent backward and not forward. 25 From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, ^zI have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. 26 ^vYet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, ^abut stiffened their neck. ^bThey did worse than their fathers.

27 ^c“So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. ^dYou shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 And 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; ^etruth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.

The Valley of Slaughter

30 “For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set ^htheir detestable things in the house ⁱthat is called by my name, to ^hdefile it. 31 And they have built the high places of ^jTopheth, which is in ^kthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, ^lto burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, ^mwhich I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. 32 ⁿTherefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called ^jTopheth, or ^kthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; ^ofor they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. 33 ^pAnd the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, ^qand none will frighten them away. 34 ^rAnd I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, ^sfor the land shall become a waste.

Jeremiah Threatened with Death

1 ^tIn the beginning of the reign of ^uJehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the Lord: 2 “Thus says the Lord: ^vStand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the Lord ^wall the words that I command you to speak to them; ^xdo not hold back a word. 3 ^yIt may be they will listen, and every one turn from his evil way, ^zthat I may relent of the disaster that I intend to do to them ^abecause of their evil deeds. 4 You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: ^bIf you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, 5 ^cand to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you ^curgently, ^cthough you have not listened, 6 then I will make this house ^dlike Shiloh, and I will make this city ^ea curse for all the nations of the earth.’”

7 ^fThe priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. 8 And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then ^fthe priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die! 9 Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘This house shall be ^dlike Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, ^gwithout inhabitant’?” And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.

10 When ^hthe officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the Lord and took their seat in the ⁱentry of the New Gate of the house of the Lord. 11 Then ^fthe priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, ^j“This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”

12 Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people, saying, “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard. 13 Now therefore ^kmend your ways and your deeds, ^land obey the voice of the Lord your God, ^zand the Lord will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you. 14 ^mBut as for me, behold, I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. 15 Only know for certain that if you put me to death, ⁿyou will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.”

Jeremiah Spared from Death

16 ^oThen the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, ^p“This man does not deserve the sentence of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.” 17 ^qAnd certain of ^rthe elders of the land arose and spoke to all the assembled people, saying, 18 “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and said to all the people of Judah: ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts,

19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? ^tDid he not fear the Lord and entreat the favor of the Lord, ^uand did not the Lord relent of the disaster that he had pronounced against them? ^vBut we are about to bring great disaster upon ourselves.”

20 There was another man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from ^wKiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land in words like those of Jeremiah. 21 And when ^xKing Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and all the officials, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt. 22 Then ^xKing Jehoiakim sent to Egypt certain men, ^yElnathan the son of ^zAchbor and others with him, 23 and they took Uriah from Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, ^awho struck him down with the sword and dumped his dead body into the burial place of the common people.

24 But the hand of ^bAhikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah so that he was not given over to the people to be put to death.