The Lord Our God Is Holy

Evil in the Land

7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ^2 (A)“Stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. ³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(B)Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. ^4 (C)Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

⁵ “For if you truly ^(D)amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly ^(E)execute justice one with another, ⁶ if you ^(F)do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, ^(G)or shed innocent blood in this place, ^(H)and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, ^7 (I)then I will let you dwell in this place, ^(J)in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

⁸ “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. ^9 (K)Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, ^(L)swear falsely, ^(M)make offerings to Baal, ^(N)and go after other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰ and then come and stand before me in this house, ^(O)which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? ^11 (P)Has this house, ^(Q)which is called by my name, ^(R)become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. ¹² Go now to ^(S)my place that was in Shiloh, ^(T)where I made my name dwell at first, and ^(U)see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. ¹³ And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and ^(V)when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and ^(W)when I called you, you did not answer, ¹⁴ therefore I will do to ^(X)the house ^(Y)that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, ^(Z)as I did to Shiloh. ^15 (AA)And I will cast you out of my sight, ^(AB)as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of ^(AC)Ephraim.

¹⁶ “As for you, ^(AD)do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. ¹⁷ Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, ^(AE)and the women knead dough, to ^(AF)make cakes for ^(AG)the queen of heaven. And ^(AH)they pour out drink offerings to other gods, ^(AI)to provoke me to anger. ^19 (AJ)Is it I whom they provoke? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, ^(AK)to their own shame? ²⁰ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, ^(AL)my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; ^(AM)it will burn and not be quenched.”

²¹ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(AN)“Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. ²² For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them ^(AO)concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. ²³ But this command I gave them: ^(AP)‘Obey my voice, and ^(AQ)I will be your God, and you shall be my people. ^(AR)And walk in all the way that I command you, ^(AS)that it may be well with you.’ ^24 (AT)But they did not obey or incline their ear, ^(AU)but walked in their own counsels and ^(AV)the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and ^(AW)went backward and not forward. ²⁵ From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, ^(AX)I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. ^26 (AY)Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, ^(AZ)but stiffened their neck. ^(BA)They did worse than their fathers.

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

The Valley of Slaughter

³⁰ “For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set ^(BG)their detestable things in the house ^(BH)that is called by my name, to ^(BI)defile it. ³¹ And they have built the high places of ^(BJ)Topheth, which is in ^(BK)the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, ^(BL)to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, ^(BM)which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. ^32 (BN)Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called ^(BO)Topheth, or ^(BP)the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; ^(BQ)for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. ^33 (BR)And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, ^(BS)and none will frighten them away. ^34 (BT)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, ^(BU)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. ² And they shall be spread ^(BV)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. ^(BW)And they shall not be gathered or buried. ^(BX)They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. ^3 (BY)Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family ^(BZ)in all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts.

Traditions and Commandments

7 ^(A)Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes ^(B)who had come from Jerusalem, ² they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were ^(C)defiled, that is, unwashed. ³ (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly,^[a] holding to ^(D)the tradition of ^(E)the elders, ⁴ and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.^[b] And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as ^(F)the washing of ^(G)cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.^[c]) ⁵ And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to ^(H)the tradition of ^(I)the elders, ^(J)but eat with ^(K)defiled hands?” ⁶ And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you ^(L)hypocrites, as it is written,

⁸ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

⁹ And he said to them, “You have a fine way of ^(O)rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! ¹⁰ For Moses said, ^(P)‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ^(Q)‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ ¹¹ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)^[d]— ¹² then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, ¹³ thus ^(R)making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

What Defiles a Person

¹⁴ And he called the people to him again and said to them, ^(S)“Hear me, all of you, and understand: ^15 (T)There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”^{[e] 17} And when he had entered ^(U)the house and left the people, ^(V)his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸ And he said to them, “Then ^(W)are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, ¹⁹ since it enters not his heart ^(X)but his stomach, and is expelled?”^[f] (^(Y)Thus he declared all foods clean.) ²⁰ And he said, ^(Z)“What comes out of a person is what defiles him. ²¹ For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, ^(AA)murder, adultery, ²² coveting, wickedness, deceit, ^(AB)sensuality, ^(AC)envy, ^(AD)slander, ^(AE)pride, ^(AF)foolishness. ^23 (AG)All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”