Message at the Temple Gate

7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ² “^(A)Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship the Lord!’” ³ This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “^(B)Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you live in this place. ^4 (C)Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘^[a]This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ ⁵ For ^(D)if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly ^(E)practice justice between a person and his neighbor, ⁶ if you do not oppress the stranger, the ^[b](F)orphan, or the widow, and do not shed ^(G)innocent blood in this place, nor ^(H)follow other gods to your own ruin, ⁷ then I will let you ^(I)live in this place, in the ^(J)land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

⁸ “Behold, you are trusting in ^(K)deceptive words to no avail. ⁹ Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, ^[c](L)offer sacrifices to Baal, and follow ^(M)other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰ then ^(N)come and stand before Me in ^(O)this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are saved!’—so that you may do all these abominations? ¹¹ Has ^(P)this house, which is called by My name, become a ^(Q)den of robbers in your sight? Behold, ^(R)I Myself have seen it,” declares the Lord.

¹² “But go now to My place which was in ^(S)Shiloh, where I ^(T)made My name dwell at the beginning, and ^(U)see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. ¹³ And now, because you have done all these things,” declares the Lord, “and I spoke to you, ^(V)speaking again and again, but you did not listen, and I ^(W)called you but you did not answer, ¹⁴ therefore I will do to the ^(X)house which is called by My name, ^(Y)in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, just as I ^(Z)did to Shiloh. ¹⁵ I will ^(AA)hurl you out of My sight, just as I have hurled out all your brothers, all the ^[d]descendants of ^(AB)Ephraim.

¹⁶ “As for you, ^(AC)do not pray for this people, and do not lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not plead with Me; for I am not listening to you. ¹⁷ Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The ^[e]children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven; and they ^(AD)pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to ^(AE)provoke Me to anger. ^19 (AF)Are they provoking Me?” declares the Lord. “Is it not themselves instead, to their ^[f]own ^(AG)shame?” ²⁰ Therefore this is what the Lord ^[g]God says: “Behold, My ^(AH)anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on human and animal life, and on the ^(AI)trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched.”

²¹ This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “Add your ^(AJ)burnt offerings to your sacrifices and ^(AK)eat flesh. ²² For I did not ^(AL)speak to your fathers, or command them on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. ²³ But this is ^[h]what I commanded them, saying, ‘^(AM)Obey My voice, and ^(AN)I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you shall walk ^[i]entirely in the way which I command you, so that it may ^(AO)go well for you.’ ²⁴ Yet they ^(AP)did not obey or incline their ear, but walked by their own advice and in the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and they ^[j](AQ)went backward and not forward. ²⁵ Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have ^(AR)sent you all My servants the prophets, sending them daily, again and again. ²⁶ Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but ^(AS)stiffened their neck; they ^(AT)did more evil than their fathers.

²⁷ “So you shall ^(AU)speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will ^(AV)not answer you. ²⁸ And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that ^(AW)did not obey the voice of the Lord their God or accept discipline; ^[k](AX)trustworthiness has perished and has been eliminated from their mouth.

³⁰ For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight,” declares the Lord. “They have ^(BB)put their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. ³¹ They have ^(BC)built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, to ^(BD)burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I ^(BE)did not command, and it did not come into My ^[m]mind.

³² “^(BF)Therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of the Slaughter; for they will ^(BG)bury in Topheth ^[n]because there is no other place. ³³ The ^(BH)dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth; and no one will frighten them away. ³⁴ Then I will ^(BI)eliminate from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride; for the ^(BJ)land will become a site of ruins.

Prophecy of the Captivity

25 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the ^(A)fourth year of ^(B)Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the ^(C)first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), ² the word which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the ^(D)people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ³ “From the ^(E)thirteenth year of ^(F)Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, ^[a]these ^(G)twenty-three years the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken to you ^(H)again and again, but you have not listened. ⁴ And the Lord has sent to you all His ^(I)servants the prophets again and again, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear, ⁵ saying, ‘^(J)Turn now, everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and live on the land which the Lord has given to you and your forefathers ^(K)forever and ever; ⁶ and ^(L)do not follow other gods to ^[b]serve them and to ^[c]worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, then I will do you no harm.’ ⁷ Yet you have not listened to Me,” declares the Lord, “in order to ^(M)provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.

⁸ “Therefore this is what the Lord of armies says: ‘Because you have not obeyed My words, ⁹ behold, I will ^(N)send and take all the families of the north,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, ^(O)My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations; and I will ^[d]completely destroy them and ^(P)make them an object of horror and ^[e]hissing, and an everlasting place of ruins. ¹⁰ Moreover, I will ^(Q)eliminate from them the voice of jubilation and the voice of joy, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride, the ^(R)sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. ^11 (S)This entire land will be a place of ruins and an object of horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for ^(T)seventy years.

Babylon Will Be Judged

¹² ‘Then it will be ^(U)when seventy years are completed I will ^(V)punish the king of Babylon and that nation,’ declares the Lord, ‘for their wrongdoing, and the land of the Chaldeans; and ^(W)I will make it an everlasting desolation. ¹³ I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in ^(X)this book which Jeremiah has prophesied against ^(Y)all the nations. ¹⁴ (^[f]For ^(Z)many nations and great kings will make slaves of them, even them; and I will ^(AA)repay them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.)’”

⁶ Then I heard Him speaking to me from the house, while a ^(A)man was standing beside me. ⁷ And He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My ^(B)throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will ^(C)dwell among the sons of Israel forever. And the house of Israel will not again defile My holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their prostitution and by the ^[a](D)corpses of their kings ^[b]when they die, ⁸ by putting their threshold by My threshold, and their door post beside My door post, with only the wall between Me and them. And they have ^(E)defiled My holy name by their abominations which they have committed. So I have consumed them in My anger. ⁹ Now let them ^(F)remove their prostitution and the ^[c]corpses of their kings far from Me, and I will ^(G)dwell among them forever.