Beginning
7 The Words that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2 “Stand in the gate of the LORD’s House, and cry this Word there, and say, ‘Hear the Word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates, to worship the LORD!”
3 Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your works, and I will let you dwell in this place.
4 “Do not trust in lying words, saying, ‘The Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, this is the Temple of the LORD.’
5 “For if you amend and redress your ways and your works, if you execute judgment between a man and neighbor,
6 “and do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place or walk after other gods, to your destruction,
7 “then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever and ever.
8 “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit.
9 “Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know,
10 “and come and stand before Me in this House, whereupon My Name is called, and say, ‘We are delivered, even though we have done all these abominations’?
11 “Has this House become a den of thieves, whereupon My Name is called before your eyes? Behold, even I see it,” says the LORD.
12 “But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My Name at the beginning. And behold what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.
13 “Therefore, now, because you have done all these works,” says the LORD, “I rose up early and spoke to you. But when I spoke, you would not hear Me, nor would you answer when I called.
14 “Therefore I will do to this House upon which My Name is called — in which you also trust, the place that I gave to you and to your fathers — as I have done to Shiloh.
15 “And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim.
16 “Therefore, you shall neither pray for this people nor lift up cry or prayer for them nor entreat Me. For I will not hear you.
17 “Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
18 “The children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, so that they may provoke Me to anger.
19 “Do they provoke Me to anger,” says the LORD, “and not themselves to the shame of their own faces?”
20 Therefore, thus says the LORD God: “Behold, MY anger and My wrath shall be poured upon this place, upon man and upon beast, and upon the tree of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground. And it shall burn and not be quenched.”
21 Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “Put your Burnt Offerings with your Sacrifices and eat the flesh.
22 “For I did not speak to your fathers, or Command them, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices.
23 “But this thing I Commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My Voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways which I have Commanded you, so that it may be well with you.’
24 “But they would not obey, nor incline their ear, but went after the counsels and the stubbornness of their wicked heart and went backward and not forward.
25 “Since the day that your fathers came up out of the land of Egypt, to this day, I have even sent to you all My servants, the Prophets, rising up early every day and sending them.
26 “Yet they would not hear Me, nor incline their ear, but hardened their neck and did worse than their fathers.
27 “Therefore, you shall speak all these Words to them. But they will not hear you. You shall also cry to them, but they will not answer you.
28 “But you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not hear the Voice of the LORD their God or receive discipline. Truth has perished and has been cut out of their mouth.
29 ‘Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away. And take up a complaint on the high places. For the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’
30 “For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the LORD. “They have set their abominations in the House upon which My Name is called, to pollute it.
31 “And they have built the high place of Tophet, which is in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not Command them. Nor did it come into My Heart.
32 “Therefore, behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that it shall not be called Tophet anymore, nor the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they shall bury in Tophet until there is no place.
33 “And the carcasses of this people shall be food for the birds of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. And no one shall frighten them away.
34 “Then I will cause to 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 the land shall be desolate.”
8 “At that time,” says the LORD, “they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of their 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.
2 “And they shall spread them before the Sun, and the Moon, and all the host of Heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and whom they have followed, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped. They shall not be gathered or be buried, but shall be as dung upon the Earth.
3 “And death shall be desired rather than life by all the residue that remains of this wicked family, who remain in all the places where I have scattered them,” says the LORD of Hosts.’
4 “You shall also say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Shall they fall, and not arise? Shall he turn away and not turn again?
5 “Why has this people of Jerusalem backslid in a perpetual apostasy? They gave themselves to deceit and would not return.
6 “I listened and heard. No one spoke aright. No man repented of his wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turned to their running, as the horse rushes into the battle.
7 “Even the stork in the air knows her appointed times, and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the judgment of the LORD.
8 “How do you say, ‘We are wise, and the Law of the LORD is with us?’ Lo, certainly in vain it is made, the pen of the scribes.
9 “The wise men are ashamed. They are afraid and taken. Lo, they have rejected the Word of the LORD. And what wisdom is in them?
10 “Therefore, I will give their wives to others, their fields to those who shall possess them. For everyone, from the least to the greatest, is given to covetousness. From the Prophet to the Priest, everyone deals falsely.
11 “For they have healed the hurt of the Daughter of My people with sweet words, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.
12 “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not ashamed. Nor could they have any shame. Therefore, they shall fall among the slain when I shall visit them. They shall be cast down,” says the LORD.’
13 “I will surely consume them,” says the LORD.’ “There shall be no grapes on the vine or figs on the fig tree. And the leaf shall fade. And the things that I have given them shall depart from them.”’”
14 Why do we stay? Assemble yourselves! And let us enter into the strong cities! And let us be quiet there. For the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us water with gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
15 We looked for peace, but no good; for a time of health, and behold troubles.
16 The neighing of His horses was heard from Dan. The whole land trembled at the noise of the neighing of His strong horses. For they have come, and have devoured the land with all that is in it: the city and those who dwell in it.
17 “For behold, I will send serpents and vipers among you, which will not be charmed. And they shall sting you,” says the LORD.
18 I would have comforted myself against sorrow, but my heart is heavy in me.
19 Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from 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, and with strange vanities?”
20 “The harvest is past! The summer has ended! And we are not saved!”
21 Because of the brokenness of the daughter of my people, I am broken. I mourn. Astonishment has taken me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no Physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
9 Oh, that my head were full of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
2 Oh, that I had in the wilderness a cottage of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, and an assembly of rebels!
3 “And they bend their tongues like their bows, for lies. But they have no courage for the truth upon the Earth. For they proceed from evil to worse, and they have not known Me,” says the LORD.
4 “Let everyone observe his neighbor. And do not trust in any brother. For every brother will use deceit, and every friend will deal deceitfully.
5 “And everyone will deceive his friend, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies, and take great pains to do wickedly.
6 “Your habitation is in the midst of deceivers. Because of deceit, they refuse to know Me,” says the LORD.
7 Therefore, thus says the LORD of Hosts: “Behold, I will refine them and test them. For what else should I do for the Daughter of My people?
8 “Their tongue is as an arrow shot out and speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth. But in his heart, he lays in wait for him.
9 “Shall I not reckon with them for these things?” says the LORD. “Or shall My Soul not be avenged on such a nation as this?
10 “Upon the mountains will I take up a weeping and a lamentation, and upon the fair places of the wilderness a mourning, because they are burnt up, so that no one can pass through them, nor can men hear the voice of the flock. Both the bird of the air and the beast have fled away, gone.
11 “And I will make Jerusalem a heap, a den of dragons, and I will make the cities of Judah waste, without an inhabitant.”
12 Who is wise to understand this? And to whom the Mouth of the LORD has spoken, He shall declare it. Why does the land perish, burnt up like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?
13 And the LORD says, “Because they have forsaken My Law, which I set before them, and have not obeyed My Voice, or walked thereafter,
14 “but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after Baal, which their fathers taught them,”
15 Therefore, thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “behold, I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them waters of gall to drink.
16 “I will also scatter them among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send a sword after them, until I have consumed them.”
17 Thus says the LORD of Hosts: “Consider, and call for the mourning women, so that they may come. And send for skillful women, so that they may come.”
18 And let them hurry. And let them take up a lamentation for us, so that our eyes may cast out tears, and our eyelids gush out of water.
19 For a lamentable noise is heard out of Zion, “How we are destroyed and utterly confounded! For we have forsaken the land, and our dwellings have cast us out!”
20 Therefore hear the Word of the LORD, O you women, and let your ears regard the words of His Mouth. And teach your daughters to mourn, and everyone her neighbor to lament.
21 For death has come up into our windows and has entered into our palaces, to destroy the children outside, and the young men in the streets:
22 “Speak, ‘Thus says the LORD: “The carcasses of men shall lie as the dung upon the field, and as the handful after the mower. And no one shall gather.”
23 ‘Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, or the strong man glory in his strength, or the rich man glory in his riches.
24 “But let him who glories glory in this: that he understands and knows Me. For I am the LORD, Who shows mercy, judgment, and righteousness on the Earth. For in these things I delight,” says the LORD.’
25 “Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that I will visit all those who are circumcised, with the uncircumcised.
26 “Egypt and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all the utmost corners of those who dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the House of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.”’”
© 2019, 2024 by Five Talents Audio. All rights reserved.