World English Bible

1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin.

2 Yahweh’s wordcame to him in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.

4 Now Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,

5 “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

Before you were born, I sanctified you.

I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

6 Then I said, “Ah, LordYahweh! Behold,I don’t know how to speak; for I am a child.”

7 But Yahweh said to me, “Don’t say, ‘I am a child;’ for you must go to whomever I send you, and you must say whatever I command you.

8 Don’t be afraid because of them, for I am with you to rescue you,” says Yahweh.

9 Then Yahweh stretched out his hand, and touched my mouth. Then Yahweh said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

10 Behold, I have today set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

11 Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?”

I said, “I see a branch of an almond tree.”

12 Then Yahweh said to me, “You have seen well; for I watch over my word to perform it.”

13 Yahweh’s word came to me the second time, saying, “What do you see?”

I said, “I see a boiling cauldron; and it is tipping away from the north.”

14 Then Yahweh said to me, “Out of the north, evil will break out on all the inhabitants of the land.

15 For, behold, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north,” says Yahweh.

“They will come, and they will each set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem,

and against all its walls all around, and against all the cities of Judah.

16 I will utter my judgments against them concerning all their wickedness,

in that they have forsaken me,

and have burned incense to other gods,

and worshiped the works of their own hands.

17 “You therefore put your belt on your waist, arise, and say to them all that I command you. Don’t be dismayed at them, lest I dismay you before them.

18 For, behold, I have made you today a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land.

19 They will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you”, says Yahweh, “to rescue you.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JER/1-e10469528eda1981e9566feea28649c4.mp3?version_id=206—

1 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,

2 “Go, and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Yahweh says,

“I remember for you the kindness of your youth,

the love of your weddings;

how you went after me in the wilderness,

in a land that was not sown.

3 Israel was holiness to Yahweh,

the first fruits of his increase.

All who devour him shall be held guilty.

Evil shall come on them,”’ says Yahweh.”

4 Hear Yahweh’s word, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel!

5 Yahweh says,

“What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me,

that they have gone far from me,

and have walked after worthless vanity,

and have become worthless?

6 They didn’t say, ‘Where is Yahweh who brought us up out of the land of Egypt,

who led us through the wilderness,

through a land of deserts and of pits,

through a land of drought and of the shadow of death,

through a land that no one passed through,

and where no man lived?’

7 I brought you into a plentiful land,

to eat its fruit and its goodness;

but when you entered, you defiled my land,

and made my heritage an abomination.

8 The priests didn’t say, ‘Where is Yahweh?’

and those who handle the law didn’t know me.

The rulers also transgressed against me,

and the prophets prophesied by Baal,

and followed things that do not profit.

9 “Therefore I will yet contend with you,” says Yahweh,

“and I will contend with your children’s children.

10 For pass over to the islands of Kittim, and see;

and send to Kedar, and consider diligently;

and see if there has been such a thing.

11 Has a nation changed its gods,

which really are no gods?

But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.

12 “Be astonished, you heavens, at this,

and be horribly afraid.

Be very desolate,” says Yahweh.

13 “For my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters,

and cut them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

14 Is Israel a slave?

Is he born into slavery?

Why has he become a captive?

15 The young lions have roared at him, and yelled.

They have made his land waste.

His cities are burned up, without inhabitant.

16 The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of your head.

17 “Haven’t you brought this on yourself,

in that you have forsaken Yahweh your God,when he led you by the way?

18 Now what do you gain by going to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor?

Or why do you to go on the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?

19 “Your own wickedness will correct you,

and your backsliding will rebuke you.

Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing,

that you have forsaken Yahweh your God,

and that my fear is not in you,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.

20 “For long ago I broke off your yoke,

and burst your bonds.

You said, ‘I will not serve;’

for on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed yourself,

playing the prostitute.

21 Yet I had planted you a noble vine,

a pure and faithful seed.

How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?

22 For though you wash yourself with lye,

and use much soap,

yet your iniquity is marked before me,” says the Lord Yahweh.

23 “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled.

I have not gone after the Baals’?

See your way in the valley.

Know what you have done.

You are a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

24 a wild donkey used to the wilderness, that sniffs the wind in her craving.

When she is in heat, who can turn her away?

All those who seek her will not weary themselves. In her month, they will find her.

25 “Keep your feet from being bare,

and your throat from thirst.

But you said, ‘It is in vain.

No, for I have loved strangers,

and I will go after them.’

26 As the thief is ashamed when he is found,

so is the house of Israel ashamed;

they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets;

27 who tell wood, ‘You are my father;’

and a stone, ‘You have given birth to me:’

for they have turned their back to me,

and not their face;

but in the time of their trouble they will say, ‘Arise, and save us.’

28 “But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves?

Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble:

for you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah.

29 “Why will you contend with me?

You all have transgressed against me,” says Yahweh.

30 “I have struck your children in vain.

They received no correction.

Your own sword has devoured your prophets,

like a destroying lion.

31 Generation, consider Yahweh’s word.

Have I been a wilderness to Israel?

Or a land of thick darkness?

Why do my people say, ‘We have broken loose.

We will come to you no more?’

32 “Can a virgin forget her ornaments,

or a bride her attire?

Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number.

33 How well you prepare your way to seek love!

Therefore you have even taught the wicked women your ways.

34 Also the blood of the souls of the innocent poor is found in your skirts.

You did not find them breaking in;

but it is because of all these things.

35 “Yet you said, ‘I am innocent.

Surely his anger has turned away from me.’

“Behold, I will judge you,

because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’

36 Why do you go about so much to change your ways?

You will be ashamed of Egypt also,

as you were ashamed of Assyria.

37 You will also leave that place with your hands on your head;

for Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust,

and you won’t prosper with them.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JER/2-a8b02704a4201902ffd48880f8cc5069.mp3?version_id=206—

1 “They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says Yahweh.

2 “Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat waiting for them by the road, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.

3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a prostitute’s forehead. You refused to be ashamed.

4 Will you not from this time cry to me, ‘My Father, you are the guide of my youth?’

5 “‘Will he retain his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way.”

6 Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and has played the prostitute there.

7 I said after she had done all these things, ‘She will return to me;’ but she didn’t return; and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

8 I saw when, for this very cause, that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, had no fear; but she also went and played the prostitute.

9 Because she took her prostitution lightly, the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with wood.

10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense,” says Yahweh.

11 Yahweh said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, you backsliding Israel,’ says Yahweh; ‘I will not look in anger on you; for I am merciful,’ says Yahweh. ‘I will not keep anger forever.

13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’ says Yahweh.”

14 “Return, backsliding children,” says Yahweh; “for I am a husband to you. I will take one of you from a city, and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

15 I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

16 It will come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days,” says Yahweh, “they will no longer say, ‘the ark of Yahweh’s covenant!’ It will not come to mind. They won’t remember it. They won’t miss it, nor will another be made.

17 At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘Yahweh’s Throne;’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Yahweh’s name, to Jerusalem. They will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

18 In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.

19 “But I said, ‘How I desire to put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations!’ and I said, ‘You shall call me “My Father”, and shall not turn away from following me.’

20 “Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel,” says Yahweh.

21 A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping and the petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Yahweh their God.

22 Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding.

“Behold, we have come to you; for you are Yahweh our God.

23 Truly in vain is help from the hills, the tumult on the mountains. Truly the salvation of Israel is in Yahweh our God.

24 But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed Yahweh our God’s voice.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JER/3-8f0b2c17ba0fcc9c7c970a7902d49c8d.mp3?version_id=206—

1 “If you will return, Israel,” says Yahweh, “if you will return to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you shall not be removed;

2 and you shall swear, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. The nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.”

3 For Yahweh says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, “Break up your fallow ground, and don’t sow among thorns.

4 Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go out like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

5 Declare in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, ‘Blow the trumpet in the land!’ Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves! Let us go into the fortified cities!’

6 Set up a standard toward Zion. Flee for safety! Don’t wait; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.”

7 A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; he is on his way, he has gone out from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.

8 For this clothe yourself with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Yahweh hasn’t turned back from us.

9 “It shall happen at that day,” says Yahweh, “that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.”

10 Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You shall have peace;’ whereas the sword reaches to the heart.”

11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse;

12 a full wind from these shall come for me. Now I will also utter judgments against them.”

13 Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! For we are ruined.

14 Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?

15 For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes evil from the hills of Ephraim:

16 “Tell the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, ‘Watchers come from a far country, and raise their voice against the cities of Judah.

17 As keepers of a field, they are against her all around, because she has been rebellious against me,’” says Yahweh.

18 “Your way and your doings have brought these things to you. This is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.”

19 My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I can’t hold my peace; because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

20 Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, and my curtains in a moment.

21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

22 “For my people are foolish, they don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.”

23 I saw the earth, and, behold, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

24 I saw the mountains, and behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth.

25 I saw, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky had fled.

26 I saw, and behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of Yahweh, before his fierce anger.

27 For Yahweh says, “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full end.

28 For this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.”

29 Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers; they go into the thickets, and climb up on the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein.

30 You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with makeup, you make yourself beautiful in vain. Your lovers despise you. They seek your life.

31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who gives birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, saying, “Woe is me now! For my soul faints before the murderers.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JER/4-34342e07113e2f632a73347274f214d0.mp3?version_id=206—

1 “Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its wide places, if you can find a man, if there are any who does justly, who seeks truth; and I will pardon her.

2 Though they say, ‘As Yahweh lives;’ surely they swear falsely.”

3 O Yahweh, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.

4 Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know the way of Yahweh, nor the law of their God.

5 I will go to the great men, and will speak to them; for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

6 Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them, a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their cities; everyone who goes out there shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, and their backsliding is increased.

7 “How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes’ houses.

8 They were as fed horses roaming at large: everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife.

9 Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says Yahweh; “and shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

10 “Go up on her walls, and destroy; but don’t make a full end. Take away her branches; for they are not Yahweh’s.

11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,” says Yahweh.

12 They have denied Yahweh, and said, “It is not he; neither shall evil come on us; neither shall we see sword nor famine.

13 The prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them.”

14 Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies says, “Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

15 Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far, house of Israel,” says Yahweh. “It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don’t know, neither understand what they say.

16 Their quiver is an open tomb, they are all mighty men.

17 They shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat. They shall eat up your flocks and your herds. They shall eat up your vines and your fig trees. They shall beat down your fortified cities, in which you trust, with the sword.

18 “But even in those days,” says Yahweh, “I will not make a full end with you.

19 It will happen, when you say, ‘Why has Yahweh our God done all these things to us?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Just like you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

20 “Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,

21 ‘Hear now this, foolish people, and without understanding; who have eyes, and don’t see; who have ears, and don’t hear:

22 Don’t you fear me?’ says Yahweh ‘Won’t you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it can’t pass it? and though its waves toss themselves, yet they can’t prevail; though they roar, yet they can’t pass over it.’

23 “But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they have revolted and gone.

24 Neither do they say in their heart, ‘Let us now fear Yahweh our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’

25 “Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you.

26 For among my people are found wicked men. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. They set a trap. They catch men.

27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they have become great, and grew rich.

28 They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don’t plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they don’t judge the right of the needy.

29 “Shall I not punish for these things?” says Yahweh. “Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

30 “An astonishing and horrible thing has happened in the land.

31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JER/5-6ed3cd3ac7d8d12840dd4ff5d1b2c7fa.mp3?version_id=206—

1 “Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the middle of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise up a signal on Beth Haccherem; for evil looks out from the north, and a great destruction.

2 I will cut off the comely and delicate one, the daughter of Zion.

3 Shepherds with their flocks shall come to her; they shall pitch their tents against her all around; they shall feed everyone in his place.”

4 “Prepare war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us! For the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.

5 Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces.”

6 For Yahweh of Armies said, “Cut down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression within her.

7 As a well produces its waters, so she produces her wickedness: violence and destruction is heard in her; before me continually is sickness and wounds.

8 Be instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from you; lest I make you a desolation, a land not inhabited.”

9 Yahweh of Armies says, “They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel like a vine. Turn again your hand as a grape gatherer into the baskets.”

10 To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t listen. Behold, Yahweh’s word has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it.

11 Therefore I am full of Yahweh’s wrath. I am weary with holding in.

“Pour it out on the children in the street,

and on the assembly of young men together;

for even the husband with the wife shall be taken,

the aged with him who is full of days.

12 Their houses shall be turned to others,

their fields and their wives together;

for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of the land, says Yahweh.”

13 “For from their least even to their greatest, everyone is given to covetousness;

and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely.

14 They have healed also the hurt of my people superficially,

saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace.

15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?

No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush.

Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;

at the time that I visit them, they shall be cast down,” says Yahweh.

16 Yahweh says, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

17 I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen!’

18 Therefore hear, you nations, and know, congregation, what is among them.

19 Hear, earth! Behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.

20 To what purpose comes there to me frankincense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.”

21 Therefore Yahweh says, “Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people. The fathers and the sons together shall stumble against them. The neighbor and his friend shall perish.”

22 Yahweh says, “Behold, a people comes from the north country. A great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

23 They take hold of bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Zion.”

24 We have heard its report; our hands become feeble: anguish has taken hold of us, and pains as of a woman in labor.

25 Don’t go out into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and terror, are on every side.

26 Daughter of my people, clothe yourself with sackcloth, and wallow in ashes! Mourn, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly come on us.

27 “I have made you a tester of metals and a fortress among my people; that you may know and try their way.

28 They are all grievous rebels, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly.

29 The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away.

30 Men will call them rejected silver, because Yahweh has rejected them.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JER/6-514d0b09cc5257fe170c7f80aeceb443.mp3?version_id=206—

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

2 “Stand in the gate of Yahweh’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship Yahweh.’”

3 Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

4 Don’t trust in lying words, saying, ‘Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, are these.’

5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;

6 if you don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt:

7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forever more.

8 Behold, you trust in lying words, that can’t profit.

9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known,

10 and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered;’ that you may do all these abominations?

11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says Yahweh.

12 “But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

13 Now, because you have done all these works,” says Yahweh, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn’t hear; and I called you, but you didn’t answer:

14 therefore will I do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

15 I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole offspringof Ephraim.

16 “Therefore don’t pray for this people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear you.

17 Don’t you 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 to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

19 Do they provoke me to anger? says Yahweh. “Don’t they provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?”

20 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.”

21 Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat meat.

22 For I didn’t speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:

23 but this thing I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’

24 But they didn’t listen nor turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

25 Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:

26 yet they didn’t listen to me, nor did they incline their ear, but made their neck stiff. They did worse than their fathers.

27 “You shall speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will not answer you.

28 You shall tell them, ‘This is the nation that has not listened to Yahweh their God’s voice, nor received instruction. Truth has perished, and is cut off from their mouth.’

29 Cut off your hair, and throw it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

30 “For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight,” says Yahweh. “They have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.

31 They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I didn’t command, nor did it come into my mind.

32 Therefore behold, the days come”, says Yahweh, “that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter; for they shall bury in Topheth, until there is no place to bury.

33 The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals 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 become a waste.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JER/7-da4f1d8c14c6e9ae2e9c0d204b1e1cd0.mp3?version_id=206—