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¹ THE word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,² Stand in the gate of the LORDS house and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all the house of Judah who enter in these gates to worship the LORD.³ Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.⁴ Do not trust in the lying words of those who say to you, The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.⁵ For if you amend your ways and your doings, you are the temple of the LORD; if you execute justice between a man and his neighbor;⁶ If you do not defraud and oppress the strangers, the fatherless, and the widows, and do not shed innocent blood in this country, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:⁷ Then I will cause you to dwell in this country, in the land that I gave to your fathers for ever and ever.⁸ Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit.⁹ Indeed you are thieves, you are murderers, and you commit adultery and swear falsely and burn incense to Baal and walk after other gods whom you know not;¹⁰ And then you come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, Deliver us; and yet you do all these evils.¹¹ Is this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, says the LORD.¹² Therefore go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.¹³ And now, because you have done all these works, says the LORD, and I warned you in advance and spoke to you, but you did not listen; and I called you, but you did not answer;¹⁴ Therefore I will do to this house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to this city which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.¹⁵ And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even all the descendants of Ephraim.

¹⁶ Therefore do not pray for this people, neither supplicate for them nor make intercession to me; for 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 The children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire and the women knead dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.¹⁹ It is not I that they provoke, says the LORD, but they provoke themselves so that they may be ashamed.²⁰ Therefore thus says the LORD God, Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out upon this country, upon men and upon beasts and upon the trees of the field and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn and shall not be quenched.

²¹ Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat which I did not command your fathers to eat.²² Neither did I command them concerning either burnt offerings or sacrifices in the day when I brought them out of the land of Egypt;²³ 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.²⁴ But they did not listen nor incline their ear to hear, but they walked in their own counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.²⁵ From the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day I have sent to them all my servants the prophets, daily.²⁶ I sent them in advance to warn them; but they did not listen nor incline their ear toward me, but hardened their necks more than their fathers.²⁷ Therefore you shall speak all these words to them; but they will not hearken to you; you shall also call to them; but they will not answer you.²⁸ Truth is perished and is cut off from their mouth.

²⁹ Cut off your hair, Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high ways; for the LORD is angry and has forsaken this passing generation.³⁰ For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the LORD; they have set their abomination in the house which is called by my name and they have polluted it.³¹ And they have built altars by the Taphat (stream) which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither did I think of it.³² Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that it shall no more be called Taphat, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter; for they shall bury in the stream for the lack of ground.³³ And the corpses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the air and for the beasts of the earth; and there will be no deliverer.³⁴ Then I shall cause to cease 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 all the land shall become desolate.