Study Desk

The Word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

Stand in the gate of the house of Jehovah and call out there this Word, and say, Hear the Word of Jehovah all Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship Jehovah.

So says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will let you dwell in this place.

Do not trust yourself to lying words, saying, The temple of Jehovah! The temple of Jehovah! This is the temple of Jehovah!

For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor;

if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow; and do not pour out innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your evil;

then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from forever and to forever.

Behold, you trust for yourself on lying words without being of use.

Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know?

And will you then come and stand before Me in this house on which My name is called, and say, We are delivered in order to do all those detestable things.

Has this house on which My name is called become a den of violent ones in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen, declares Jehovah.

But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the evil of My people Israel.

And now, because you have done all these works, says Jehovah, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear. Yea, I called you, but you did not answer.

And I will do to the house on which My name is called, in which you are trusting, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

And I will cast you out from My face as I cast out all your brothers, all the seed of Ephraim.

And you, do not pray for this people; do not lift up cry or prayer for them. Do not intercede with Me, for I do not hear you.

Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

The sons 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.

Do they provoke Me, says Jehovah? Is it not themselves, to the shame of their own faces?

So the Lord Jehovah says this: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and will not be put out.

So says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat flesh.

For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out from the land of Egypt, concerning matters of burnt offerings and sacrifices.

But I commanded them this thing, saying, Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. Also, Walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, so that it may be well with you.

But they did not listen nor bow their ear. But they walked in their own plans, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.

Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants, the prophets, daily rising up early and sending.

Yet they did not listen to Me nor bow their ear, but they stiffened their neck. They did more evil than their fathers.

And you shall speak all these Words to them, but they will not listen to you. And you will call to them, but they will not answer you.

But you shall say to them, This is the nation that does not obey the voice of Jehovah their God, nor receive instruction. Truth has perished, and it is cut off from their mouth.

Cut off your crown and throw it away, and lift up a dirge on the heights. For Jehovah has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.

For the sons of Judah have done evil in My eyes, says Jehovah. They have set their idols in the house on which is called My name, in order to defile it.

They have built the high places of Tophet in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.

So, behold, the days come, declares Jehovah, when it shall no more be called Tophet, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they shall bury in Tophet from lack of a place.

And the bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth; and no one shall frighten them away.

Then I will cause the voice of gladness to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem, even the voice of joy, and the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride. For the land shall become a waste.