Study Desk

You must be fair to strangers. You must help widows and orphans. Don't kill innocent people! And don't follow other gods, because they will only ruin your lives.

"‘You people of Judah, go now to the town of Shiloh. Go to the place where I first made a house for my name. The people of Israel also did evil things. Go and see what I did to that place because of the evil they did.

"Jeremiah, cut off your hair and throw it away. Go up to the bare hilltop and cry, because the Lord has rejected this generation of people. He has turned his back on these people. And in anger he will punish them.

Do this because I have seen the people of Judah doing evil things." This message is from the Lord . "They have set up their idols, and I hate those idols. They have set up idols in the Temple that is called by my name. They have made my house ‘dirty'!

So I warn you. The days are coming," says the Lord , "when people will not call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom anymore. No, they will call it the Valley of Slaughter. They will give it this name because they will bury the dead people in Topheth until there is no more room to bury anyone else.

"‘You keep saying, "We have the Lord 's teachings. So we are wise!" But this is not true, because the scribes have lied with their pens.

If only I had a place in the desert— a house where travelers spend the night— so I could leave my people. I could go away from them, because they are all unfaithful to God. They have all turned against him.

"Watch your neighbors! Don't trust your own brothers, because every brother is a cheat. Every neighbor talks behind your back.

I, Jeremiah, will cry for the mountains. I will sing a funeral song for the empty fields, because all the animals were taken away. No one travels there now. The sounds of cattle cannot be heard. The birds have flown away, and the animals are gone.

The Lord answered, "It is because the people of Judah stopped following my teachings. I gave them my teachings, but they refused to listen to me. They did not follow my teachings.

"The sound of loud crying is heard from Zion: ‘We are really ruined! We are so ashamed! We must leave our land, because our houses have been destroyed. Now our houses are only piles of rock.'"

The Lord All-Powerful planted you, and he said that disaster will come to you. That is because the family of Israel and the family of Judah have done evil things. They offered sacrifices to Baal, and that made him angry!

So I went to Perath and dug the loincloth out of the crack in the rocks where I had hidden it. But now I could not wear the loincloth, because it was ruined. It was not good for anything.

I will ruin them because they refuse to listen to my messages. They are stubborn and do only what they want to do. They follow and worship other gods. They will be like this linen loincloth. They will be ruined and not good for anything.

If you people of Judah don't listen to him, I will hide and cry. Your pride will cause me to cry. I will cry very hard. My eyes will overflow with tears, because the Lord 's flock will be captured.

You might ask yourself, "Why has this bad thing happened to me?" It happened because of your many sins. Because of your sins, your skirt was torn off, and your sandals were taken away. They did this to embarrass you.

This is what will happen to you. This is your part in my plans." This message is from the Lord . "Why will this happen? Because you forgot me. You trusted false gods.

Even the mother deer in the field leaves her newborn baby alone, because there is no grass.

Wild donkeys stand on the bare hills. They sniff the wind like jackals. But their eyes cannot find any food, because there are no plants to eat.

"We know that this is our fault. We are now suffering because of our sins. Lord , do something to help us for the good of your name. We admit that we have left you many times. We have sinned against you.