30 “For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight,” says the LORD. “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 the LORD, “that it will no more be called ‘Topheth’ or ‘The valley of the son of Hinnom’, but ‘The valley of Slaughter’; for they will bury in Topheth until there is no place to bury. 33 The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth. No one will 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 will become a waste.”
8
1 “At that time,” says the LORD, “they will bring the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of his princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves. 2 They will spread them before the sun, the moon, and all the army of the sky, which they have loved, which they have served, after which they have walked, which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered or be buried. They will be like dung on the surface of the earth. 3 Death will be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says the LORD of Hosts. 4 “Moreover you shall tell them, ‘The LORD says:
“ ‘Do men fall, and not rise up again?
Does one turn away, and not return?
5 Why then have the people of Jerusalem fallen back by a perpetual backsliding?
They cling to deceit.
They refuse to return.
6 I listened and heard, but they didn’t say what is right.
No one repents of his wickedness, saying, “What have I done?”
Everyone turns to his course,
as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.
7 Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times.
The turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their coming;
but my people don’t know the LORD’s law.
8 “ ‘How do you say, “We are wise, and the LORD’s law is with us”?
But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has made that a lie.
9 The wise men are disappointed.
They are dismayed and trapped.
Behold, they have rejected the LORD’s word.
What kind of wisdom is in them?
10 Therefore I will give their wives to others
and their fields to those who will possess them.
For everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness;
from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely.
11 They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying,
“Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed.
They couldn’t blush.
Therefore they will fall among those who fall.
In the time of their visitation they will be cast down, says the LORD.
13 “ ‘I will utterly consume them, says the LORD.
No grapes will be on the vine,
no figs on the fig tree,
and the leaf will fade.
The things that I have given them
will pass away from them.’ ”
14 “Why do we sit still?
Assemble yourselves!
Let’s enter into the fortified cities,
and let’s be silent there;
for the LORD our God has put us to silence,
and given us poisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the LORD.
15 We looked for peace, but no good came;
and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!
16 The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan.
The whole land trembles at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones;
for they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it,
the city and those who dwell therein.”
17 “For, behold, I will send serpents,
adders among you,
which will not be charmed;
and they will bite you,” says the LORD.
18 Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow!
My heart is faint within me.
19 Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off:
“Isn’t the LORD in Zion?
Isn’t her King in her?”
“Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images,
and with foreign idols?”
20 “The harvest is past.
The summer has ended,
and we are not saved.”
21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people, I am hurt.
I mourn.
Dismay has taken hold of me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then isn’t the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
9
1 Oh that my head were waters,
and my eyes a spring 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 lodging place of wayfaring men,
that I might leave my people
and go from them!
For they are all adulterers,
an assembly of treacherous men.
3 “They bend their tongue,
as their bow, for falsehood.
They have grown strong in the land,
but not for truth;
for they proceed from evil to evil,
and they don’t know me,” says the LORD.
4 “Everyone beware of his neighbor,
and don’t trust in any brother;
for every brother will utterly supplant,
and every neighbor will go around like a slanderer.
5 Friends deceive each other,
and will not speak the truth.
They have taught their tongue to speak lies.
They weary themselves committing iniquity.
6 Your habitation is in the middle of deceit.
Through deceit, they refuse to know me,” says the LORD.
7 Therefore the LORD of Hosts says,
“Behold, I will melt them and test them;
for how should I deal with the daughter of my people?
8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow.
It speaks deceit.
One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth,
but in his heart, he waits to ambush him.
9 Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says the LORD.
“Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on a nation such as this?
10 I will weep and wail for the mountains,
and lament for the pastures of the wilderness,
because they are burned up, so that no one passes through;
Men can’t hear the voice of the livestock.
Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled.
They are gone.
11 “I will make Jerusalem heaps,
a dwelling place of jackals.
I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,
without inhabitant.”
12 Who is wise enough to understand this? Who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?
13 The LORD says, “Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in my ways, 14 but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them.” 15 Therefore the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink. 16 I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.”
17 The LORD of Hosts says,
“Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come.
Send for the skillful women, that they may come.
18 Let them make haste
and take up a wailing for us,
that our eyes may run down with tears
and our eyelids gush out with waters.
19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion,
‘How we are ruined!
We are greatly confounded
because we have forsaken the land,
because they have cast down our dwellings.’ ”
20 Yet hear the LORD’s word, you women.
Let your ear receive the word of his mouth.
Teach your daughters wailing.
Everyone teach her neighbor a lamentation.
21 For death has come up into our windows.
It has entered into our palaces
to cut off the children from outside,
and the young men from the streets.
22 Speak, “The LORD says,
“ ‘The dead bodies of men will fall as dung on the open field,
and as the handful after the harvester.
No one will gather them.’ ”
23 The LORD says,
“Don’t let the wise man glory in his wisdom.
Don’t let the mighty man glory in his might.
Don’t let the rich man glory in his riches.
24 But let him who glories glory in this,
that he has understanding, and knows me,
that I am the LORD who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth,
for I delight in these things,” says the LORD.
25 “Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that I will punish all those who are circumcised only in their flesh: 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab, and all who have the corners of their hair cut off, who dwell in the wilderness, for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”
10
1 Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, house of Israel! 2 The LORD says,
“Don’t learn the way of the nations,
and don’t be dismayed at the signs of the sky;
for the nations are dismayed at them.
3 For the customs of the peoples are vanity;
for one cuts a tree out of the forest,
the work of the hands of the workman with the ax.
4 They deck it with silver and with gold.
They fasten it with nails and with hammers,
so
