Letter of Jeremiah 17-19

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁷ so are their gods when they have been set up in the temples. Their eyes are full of the dust raised by the feet of those who enter. And just as the gates are shut on every side against anyone who has offended a king, as though under sentence of death, so the priests make their temples secure with doors and locks and bars in order that they may not be plundered by robbers.^{(A) 18} They light more lamps for them than they light for themselves, though their gods^[a] can see none of them.^{(B) 19} They are^[b] just like a beam of the temple, but their hearts, it is said, are eaten away when crawling creatures from the earth devour them and their robes. They do not notice^(C)