1The word that came to Yirmeyahu from יהוה, saying,

2“Stand in the gate of the House of יהוה, and you shall proclaim there this word, and shall say, ‘Hear the word of יהוה, all you of Yehuḏah who enter in at these gates to bow before יהוה!’ ”

3Thus said יהוה of hosts, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, “Make your ways and your deeds good, then I let you dwell in this place.

4“Do not trust in these false words, saying, ‘This is the Hĕḵal of יהוה, the Hĕḵal of יהוה, the Hĕḵal of יהוה!’

5“For if you truly make your ways and your deeds good, if you truly do right-ruling between a man and his neighbour,

6if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other mighty ones to your own evil,

7then I shall let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

8“See, you are trusting in false words, which do not profit –

9stealing, murdering, and committing adultery, and swearing falsely, and burning incense to Ba‛al, and walking after other mighty ones you have not known.

10“And you came and stood before Me in this house which is called by My Name, and said, ‘We have been delivered’ – in order to do all these abominations!

11“Has this house, which is called by My Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Look, I, even I Myself have seen it,” declares יהוה.

12“But go now to My place at Shiloh, where I set My Name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of My people Yisra’ĕl.

13“And now, because you have done all these works,” declares יהוה, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer,

14“I shall also do to this house, which is called by My Name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

15“And I shall cast you out of My presence, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the seed of Ephrayim.

16“And you, do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me, for I do not hear you.

17“Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Yehuḏah and in the streets of Yerushalayim?

18“The children are gathering wood, the fathers are lighting the fire, and the women are kneading their dough, to make cakes for the sovereigness of the heavens, and to pour out drink offerings to other mighty ones, to provoke Me.

19“Is it Me they are provoking?” declares יהוה. “Is it not themselves – unto the shame of their own faces?”

20Therefore, thus said the Master יהוה, “See, My displeasure and My wrath is poured out on this place, on man and on beast, and on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it shall burn and not be quenched.”

21Thus said יהוה of hosts, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, “Add your burnt offerings to your slaughterings and eat meat.

22“For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Mitsrayim, about matters of burnt offerings or slaughterings.

23“But this word I did command them, saying, ‘Obey My voice,a and I shall be your Elohim, and you be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, so that it be well with you.’

24“But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in the counsels, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.

25“From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Mitsrayim until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.

26“But they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did evil, more than their fathers.

27“And you shall speak all these words to them, though they do not listen to you. And you shall also call to them, though they do not answer you.

28“But you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that did not obey the voice of יהוה their Elohim, nor did they accept instruction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.

29‘Cut off your hair and throw it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights, for יהוה has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’

30“For the children of Yehuḏah have done what is evil in My eyes,” declares יהוה. “They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My Name, to defile it.

31“And 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 did not command, nor did it come into My heart.

32“Therefore see, the days are coming,” declares יהוה, “when it shall no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they shall bury in Topheth until no room is left.

33“And the corpses of this people shall be food for the birds of the heavens and for the beasts of the earth, with none to frighten them away.

34“And in the cities of Yehuḏah and in the streets of Yerushalayim I shall make to cease the voice of rejoicing and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. For the land shall become a waste!