Jeremiah 7:22-31

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²² For in the day that I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.^{(A) 23} But this command I gave them, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.”^{(B) 24} Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but, in the stubbornness of their evil will, they walked in their own counsels and looked backward rather than forward.^{(C) 25} From the day that your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day,^{(D) 26} yet they did not listen to me or pay attention, but they stiffened their necks. They did worse than their ancestors did.^(E)

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

³⁰ For the people of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord; they have set their abominations in the house that is called by my name, defiling it.^{(I) 31} And they go on building the high place^[b] of Topheth, which is 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 mind.^(J)