14 Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful,(A) following all the detestable practices of the nations and defiling the temple of the Lord, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

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We and our kings, our princes and our ancestors are covered with shame, Lord, because we have sinned against you.(A)

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Her officials within her
    are roaring lions;(A)
her rulers are evening wolves,(B)
    who leave nothing for the morning.(C)
Her prophets are unprincipled;
    they are treacherous people.(D)
Her priests profane the sanctuary
    and do violence to the law.(E)

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The faithful have been swept from the land;(A)
    not one(B) upright person remains.
Everyone lies in wait(C) to shed blood;(D)
    they hunt each other(E) with nets.(F)

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Hear this, you leaders of Jacob,
    you rulers of Israel,
who despise justice
    and distort all that is right;(A)
10 who build(B) Zion with bloodshed,(C)
    and Jerusalem with wickedness.(D)
11 Her leaders judge for a bribe,(E)
    her priests teach for a price,(F)
    and her prophets tell fortunes for money.(G)
Yet they look(H) for the Lord’s support and say,
    “Is not the Lord among us?
    No disaster will come upon us.”(I)

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Leaders and Prophets Rebuked

Then I said,

“Listen, you leaders(A) of Jacob,
    you rulers of Israel.
Should you not embrace justice,
    you who hate good and love evil;
who tear the skin from my people
    and the flesh from their bones;(B)
who eat my people’s flesh,(C)
    strip off their skin
    and break their bones in pieces;(D)
who chop(E) them up like meat for the pan,
    like flesh for the pot?(F)

Then they will cry out to the Lord,
    but he will not answer them.(G)
At that time he will hide his face(H) from them
    because of the evil they have done.(I)

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We have not listened(A) to your servants the prophets,(B) who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors,(C) and to all the people of the land.

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26 Her priests do violence to my law(A) and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common;(B) they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean;(C) and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned(D) among them.(E) 27 Her officials(F) within her are like wolves(G) tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people(H) to make unjust gain.(I) 28 Her prophets whitewash(J) these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations.(K) They say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says’—when the Lord has not spoken.(L)

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“‘See how each of the princes of Israel who are in you uses his power to shed blood.(A)

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Then the officials(A) said to the king, “This man should be put to death.(B) He is discouraging(C) the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin.”

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13 But when he reached the Benjamin Gate,(A) the captain of the guard, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, arrested him and said, “You are deserting to the Babylonians!”(B)

14 “That’s not true!” Jeremiah said. “I am not deserting to the Babylonians.” But Irijah would not listen to him; instead, he arrested(C) Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. 15 They were angry with Jeremiah and had him beaten(D) and imprisoned(E) in the house(F) of Jonathan the secretary, which they had made into a prison.

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So I will go to the leaders(A)
    and speak to them;
surely they know the way of the Lord,
    the requirements of their God.”
But with one accord they too had broken off the yoke
    and torn off the bonds.(B)

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From the days of our ancestors(A) until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword(B) and captivity,(C) to pillage and humiliation(D) at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.

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But Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.(A)

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He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “My Name(A) will remain in Jerusalem forever.” In both courts of the temple of the Lord,(B) he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his children(C) in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced divination and witchcraft, sought omens, and consulted mediums(D) and spiritists.(E) He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.

He took the image he had made and put it in God’s temple,(F) of which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name forever.

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He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom(A) and sacrificed his children(B) in the fire, engaging in the detestable(C) practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.

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10 Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria. He saw an altar in Damascus and sent to Uriah(A) the priest a sketch of the altar, with detailed plans for its construction. 11 So Uriah the priest built an altar in accordance with all the plans that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus and finished it before King Ahaz returned. 12 When the king came back from Damascus and saw the altar, he approached it and presented offerings[a](B) on it. 13 He offered up his burnt offering(C) and grain offering,(D) poured out his drink offering,(E) and splashed the blood of his fellowship offerings(F) against the altar. 14 As for the bronze altar(G) that stood before the Lord, he brought it from the front of the temple—from between the new altar and the temple of the Lord—and put it on the north side of the new altar.

15 King Ahaz then gave these orders to Uriah the priest: “On the large new altar, offer the morning(H) burnt offering and the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, and the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering and their drink offering. Splash against this altar the blood of all the burnt offerings and sacrifices. But I will use the bronze altar for seeking guidance.”(I) 16 And Uriah the priest did just as King Ahaz had ordered.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 16:12 Or and went up

Then he said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north.” So I looked, and in the entrance north of the gate of the altar I saw this idol(A) of jealousy.

And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing—the utterly detestable(B) things the Israelites are doing here, things that will drive me far from my sanctuary?(C) But you will see things that are even more detestable.”

Then he brought me to the entrance to the court. I looked, and I saw a hole in the wall. He said to me, “Son of man, now dig into the wall.” So I dug into the wall and saw a doorway there.

And he said to me, “Go in and see the wicked and detestable things they are doing here.” 10 So I went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all over the walls(D) all kinds of crawling things and unclean(E) animals and all the idols of Israel.(F) 11 In front of them stood seventy elders(G) of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was standing among them. Each had a censer(H) in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense(I) was rising.(J)

12 He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of Israel are doing in the darkness,(K) each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, ‘The Lord does not see(L) us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’” 13 Again, he said, “You will see them doing things that are even more detestable.”

14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and I saw women sitting there, mourning the god Tammuz.(M) 15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than this.”

16 He then brought me into the inner court(N) of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar,(O) were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun(P) in the east.(Q)

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