Jeremiah 7:26-9:12

New King James Version

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

²⁷“Therefore ^(D)you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.

Judgment on Obscene Religion

²⁸“So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord their God ^(E)nor receive correction. ^(F)Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. ²⁹^(G)Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’ ³⁰For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the Lord. ^(H)“They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to ^[a]pollute it. ³¹And they have built the ^(I)high places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to ^(J)burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, ^(K)which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.

³²“Therefore behold, ^(L)the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when it will no more be called Tophet, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; ^(M)for they will bury in Tophet until there is no room. ³³The ^(N)corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. And no one will frighten them away. ³⁴Then I will cause to ^(O)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 ^(P)the land shall be desolate.

Jeremiah Mourns for His People

8 “At that time,” says the Lord, “they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves. ²They shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served and after which they have walked, which they have sought and ^(Q)which they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered ^(R)nor buried; they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. ³Then ^(S)death shall be chosen rather than life by all the ^[b]residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says the Lord of hosts.

The Peril of False Teaching

⁴“Moreover you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:

“Will they fall and not rise?
Will one turn away and not return?
⁵Why has this people ^(T)slidden back,
Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding?
^(U)They hold fast to deceit,
^(V)They refuse to return.
⁶^(W)I listened and heard,
But they do not speak aright.
^(X)No man repented of his wickedness,
Saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turned to his own course,
As the horse rushes into the battle.

⁷“Even ^(Y)the stork in the heavens
Knows her appointed times;
And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow
Observe the time of their coming.
But ^(Z)My people do not know the judgment of the Lord.

⁸“How can you say, ‘We are wise,
^(AA)And the law of the Lord is with us’?
Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood.
⁹^(AB)The wise men are ashamed,
They are dismayed and taken.
Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord;
So ^(AC)what wisdom do they have?
¹⁰Therefore ^(AD)I will give their wives to others,
And their fields to those who will inherit them;
Because from the least even to the greatest
Everyone is given to ^(AE)covetousness;
From the prophet even to the priest
Everyone deals falsely.
¹¹For they have ^(AF)healed the hurt of the daughter of My people ^[c]slightly,
Saying, ^(AG)‘Peace, peace!’
When there is no peace.
¹²Were they ^(AH)ashamed when they had committed abomination?
No! They were not at all ashamed,
Nor did they know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
In the time of their punishment
They shall be cast down,” says the Lord.

¹³“I will surely ^[d]consume them,” says the Lord.
“No grapes shall be ^(AI)on the vine,
Nor figs on the ^(AJ)fig tree,
And the leaf shall fade;
And the things I have given them shall ^(AK)pass away from them.” ’ ”

¹⁴“Why do we sit still?
^(AL)Assemble yourselves,
And let us enter the fortified cities,
And let us be silent there.
For the Lord our God has put us to silence
And given us ^(AM)water^[e] of gall to drink,
Because we have sinned against the Lord.

¹⁵“We ^(AN)looked for peace, but no good came;
And for a time of health, and there was trouble!
¹⁶The snorting of His horses was heard from ^(AO)Dan.
The whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of His ^(AP)strong ones;
For they have come and devoured the land and all that is in it,
The city and those who dwell in it.”

¹⁷“For behold, I will send serpents among you,
Vipers which cannot be ^(AQ)charmed,
And they shall bite you,” says the Lord.

The Prophet Mourns for the People

¹⁸I would comfort myself in sorrow;
My heart is faint in me.
¹⁹Listen! The voice,
The cry of the daughter of my people
From ^(AR)a far country:
“Is not the Lord in Zion?
Is not her King in her?”

“Why have they provoked Me to anger
With their carved images—
With foreign idols?”

²⁰“The harvest is past,
The summer is ended,
And we are not saved!”

²¹^(AS)For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt.
I am ^(AT)mourning;
Astonishment has taken hold of me.
²²Is there no ^(AU)balm in Gilead,
Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no recovery
For the health of the daughter of my people?

Disobedience Brings God’s Judgment

9 Oh, ^(AV)that my head were waters,
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For the slain of the daughter of my people!
²Oh, that I had in the wilderness
A lodging place for travelers;
That I might leave my people,
And go from them!
For ^(AW)they are all adulterers,
An assembly of treacherous men.

³“And like their bow ^(AX)they have bent their tongues for lies.
They are not valiant for the truth on the earth.
For they proceed from ^(AY)evil to evil,
And they ^(AZ)do not know Me,” says the Lord.
⁴“Everyone^(BA) take heed to his ^[f]neighbor,
And do not trust any brother;
For every brother will utterly supplant,
And every neighbor will ^(BB)walk with slanderers.
⁵Everyone will ^(BC)deceive his neighbor,
And will not speak the truth;
They have taught their tongue to speak lies;
They weary themselves to commit iniquity.
⁶Your dwelling place is in the midst of deceit;
Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” says the Lord.

⁷Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:

“Behold, ^(BD)I will refine them and ^[g]try them;
^(BE)For how shall I deal with the daughter of My people?
⁸Their tongue is an arrow shot out;
It speaks ^(BF)deceit;
One speaks ^(BG)peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth,
But ^[h]in his heart he ^[i]lies in wait.
⁹^(BH)Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the Lord.
“Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?”

¹⁰I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,
And ^(BI)for the ^[j]dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation,
Because they are burned up,
So that no one can pass through;
Nor can men hear the voice of the cattle.
^(BJ)Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled;
They are gone.

¹¹“I will make Jerusalem ^(BK)a heap of ruins, ^(BL)a den of jackals.
I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.”

¹²^(BM)Who is the wise man who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through?