Jeremiah 7:26-9:12

English Standard Version

²⁶^(A)Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, ^(B)but stiffened their neck. ^(C)They did worse than their fathers.

²⁷^(D)“So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. ^(E)You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. ²⁸And 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; ^(F)truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.

²⁹^(G)“‘Cut off your hair and cast it away;
raise a lamentation on ^(H)the bare heights,
for the Lord has rejected and forsaken
the generation of his wrath.’

The Valley of Slaughter

³⁰“For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set ^(I)their detestable things in the house ^(J)that is called by my name, to ^(K)defile it. ³¹And they have built the high places of ^(L)Topheth, which is in ^(M)the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, ^(N)to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, ^(O)which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. ³²^(P)Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called ^(Q)Topheth, or ^(R)the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; ^(S)for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. ³³^(T)And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, ^(U)and none will frighten them away. ³⁴^(V)And 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, ^(W)for the land shall become a waste.

8 “At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. ²And they shall be spread ^(X)before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. ^(Y)And they shall not be gathered or buried. ^(Z)They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. ³^(AA)Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family ^(AB)in all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts.

Sin and Treachery

⁴“You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
^(AC)When men fall, do they not rise again?
    If one turns away, does he not return?
⁵Why then has this people ^(AD)turned away
    in perpetual ^(AE)backsliding?
^(AF)They hold fast to deceit;
    they refuse to return.
⁶^(AG)I have paid attention and listened,
    but they have not spoken rightly;
no man relents of his evil,
    saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turns to his own course,
    ^(AH)like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
⁷Even the stork in the heavens
    knows her times,
and ^(AI)the turtledove, ^(AJ)swallow, and crane^[a]
    keep the time of their coming,
^(AK)but my people know not
    the rules^[b] of the Lord.

⁸^(AL)“How can you say, ‘We are wise,
    and the law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
    has made it into a lie.
⁹^(AM)The wise men shall be put to shame;
    they shall be dismayed ^(AN)and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
    so what wisdom is in them?
¹⁰^(AO)Therefore I will give their wives to others
    and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
    everyone ^(AP)is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
    everyone deals falsely.
¹¹They have healed ^(AQ)the wound of my people lightly,
    saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
    when there is no peace.
¹²Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
    No, ^(AR)they were not at all ashamed;
    they did not know how to blush.
^(AS)Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
    when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
says the Lord.
¹³When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
    there are ^(AT)no grapes on the vine,
    ^(AU)nor figs on the fig tree;
^(AV)even the leaves are withered,
    and what I gave them has passed away from them.”^[c]

¹⁴Why do we sit still?
^(AW)Gather together; ^(AX)let us go into the fortified cities
    and perish there,
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
    and has ^(AY)given us ^(AZ)poisoned water to drink,
    because we have sinned against the Lord.
¹⁵^(BA)We looked for peace, but no good came;
    for a time of healing, but behold, terror.

¹⁶^(BB)“The snorting of their horses is heard ^(BC)from Dan;
    at the sound of the neighing ^(BD)of their stallions
    ^(BE)the whole land quakes.
They come ^(BF)and devour the land and all that fills it,
    the city and those who dwell in it.
¹⁷For behold, I am sending among you ^(BG)serpents,
    adders ^(BH)that cannot be charmed,
    ^(BI)and they shall bite you,”
declares the Lord.

Jeremiah Grieves for His People

¹⁸My joy is gone; grief is upon me;^[d]
    ^(BJ)my heart is sick within me.
¹⁹Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
    from ^(BK)the length and breadth of the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
    ^(BL)Is her King not in her?”
^(BM)“Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images
    and with their foreign idols?”
²⁰“The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
    and we are not saved.”
²¹For the wound of ^(BN)the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
    ^(BO)I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.

²²Is there no ^(BP)balm in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of the daughter of my people
    not been restored?
9 ^[e] ^(BQ)Oh that my head were waters,
    and my eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night
    for the slain of ^(BR)the daughter of my people!
²^[f] Oh that I had in the desert
    a travelers' lodging place,
that I might leave my people
    and go away from them!
For they are all ^(BS)adulterers,
    a company of ^(BT)treacherous men.
³^(BU)They bend their tongue like a bow;
    falsehood and not truth has grown strong^[g] in the land;
for they proceed from evil to evil,
    ^(BV)and they do not know me, declares the Lord.

⁴^(BW)Let everyone beware of his neighbor,
    and put no trust in any brother,
for every ^(BX)brother is a deceiver,
    and every neighbor ^(BY)goes about as a slanderer.
⁵Everyone deceives his neighbor,
    and no one speaks the truth;
they have taught their tongue to speak lies;
    they weary themselves committing iniquity.
⁶Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit,
    ^(BZ)they refuse to know me, declares the Lord.

⁷Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:
“Behold, ^(CA)I will refine them and ^(CB)test them,
    for what else can I do, ^(CC)because of my people?
⁸^(CD)Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
    ^(CE)it speaks deceitfully;
with his mouth ^(CF)each speaks peace to his neighbor,
    but in his heart ^(CG)he plans an ambush for him.
⁹^(CH)Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord,
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?

¹⁰“I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains,
    and a lamentation for ^(CI)the pastures of the wilderness,
^(CJ)because they are laid waste so that no one passes through,
    and the lowing of cattle is not heard;
^(CK)both the birds of the air and the beasts
    have fled and are gone.
¹¹^(CL)I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
    ^(CM)a lair of jackals,
^(CN)and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,
    without inhabitant.”

¹²^(CO)Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined ^(CP)and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?