32 Assuredly, a time is coming—declares the LORD—when men shall no longer speak of Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but of the Valley of Slaughter; and they shall bury in Topheth until no room is left. 33The carcasses of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, with none to frighten them off. 34And I will silence in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of bridegroom and bride. For the whole land shall fall to ruin.
8 At that time—declares the LORD—the bones of the kings of Judah, of its officers, of the priests, of the prophets, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be taken out of their graves 2and exposed to the sun, the moon, and all the host of heaven which they loved and served and followed, to which they turned and bowed down. They shall not be gathered for reburial; they shall become dung upon the face of the earth. 3And death shall be preferable to life for all that are left of this wicked folk, in all the other places to which I shall banish them—declares the LORD of Hosts.
4Say to them: Thus said the LORD:
When men fall, do they not get up again?
If they turn aside, do they not turn back?
5Why is this people—Jerusalem—rebellious
With a persistent rebellion?
They cling to deceit,
They refuse to return.
6I have listened and heard:
They do not speak honestly.
No one regrets his wickedness
And says, “What have I done!”
They all persist in their wayward course
Like a steed dashing forward in the fray.
7Even the stork in the sky knows her seasons,
And the turtledove, swift, and crane
Keep the time of their coming;
But My people pay no heed
To the law of the LORD.
8How can you say, “We are wise,
And we possess the Instruction of the LORD”?
Assuredly, for naught has the pen labored,
For naught the scribes!
9The wise shall be put to shame,
Shall be dismayed and caught;
See, they reject the word of the LORD,
So their wisdom amounts to nothing.
10Assuredly, I will give their wives to others,
And their fields to dispossessors;
For from the smallest to the greatest,
They are all greedy for gain;
Priest and prophet alike,
They all act falsely.
11They offer healing offhand
For the wounds of My poor people,
Saying, “All is well, all is well,”
When nothing is well.
12They have acted shamefully;
They have done abhorrent things—
Yet they do not feel shame,
They cannot be made to blush.
Assuredly, they shall fall among the falling,
They shall stumble at the time of their doom
—said the LORD.
13a-I will make an end of them-a
—declares the LORD:
No grapes left on the vine,
No figs on the fig tree,
The leaves all withered;
b-Whatever I have given them is gone.-b
14Why are we sitting by?
Let us gather into the fortified cities
And meet our doom there.
For the LORD our God has doomed us,
He has made us drink a bitter draft,
Because we sinned against the LORD.
15We hoped for good fortune, but no happiness came;
For a time of relief—instead there is terror!
16The snorting of their horses was heard from Dan;
At the loud neighing of their steeds
The whole land quaked.
They came and devoured the land and what was in it,
The towns and those who dwelt in them.
17Lo, I will send serpents against you,
Adders that cannot be charmed,
And they shall bite you
—declares the LORD.
18b-When in grief I would seek comfort,-b
My heart is sick within me.
19c“Is not the LORD in Zion?
Is not her King within her?
Why then did they anger Me with their images,
With alien futilities?”
Hark! The outcry of my poor people
From the land far and wide:
20“Harvest is past,
Summer is gone,
But we have not been saved.”
21Because my people is shattered I am shattered;
I am dejected, seized by desolation.
22Is there no balm in Gilead?
Can no physician be found?
Why has healing not yet
Come to my poor people?
23Oh, that my head were water,
My eyes a fount of tears!
Then would I weep day and night
For the slain of my poor people.
9
Oh, to be in the desert,
At an encampment for wayfarers!
Oh, to leave my people,
To go away from them—
For they are all adulterers,
A band of rogues.
2They bend their tongues like bows;
They are valorous in the land
For treachery, not for honesty;
They advance from evil to evil.
And they do not heed Me
—declares the LORD.
3Beware, every man of his friend!
Trust not even a brother!
For every brother takes advantage,
Every friend a-is base in his dealings.-a
4One man cheats the other,
They will not speak truth;
They have trained their tongues to speak falsely;
b-They wear themselves out working iniquity.
5You dwell in the midst of deceit.
In their deceit,-b they refuse to heed Me
—declares the LORD.
6Assuredly, thus said the LORD of Hosts:
Lo, I shall smelt and assay them—
b-For what else can I do because of My poor people?-b
7Their tongue is a sharpened arrow,
They use their mouths to deceive.
One speaks to his fellow in friendship,
But lays an ambush for him in his heart.
8Shall I not punish them for such deeds?
—says the LORD—
Shall I not bring retribution
On such a nation as this?
9For the mountains I take up weeping and wailing,
For the pastures in the wilderness, a dirge.
They are laid waste; no man passes through,
And no sound of cattle is heard.
Birds of the sky and beasts as well
Have fled and are gone.
10I will turn Jerusalem into rubble,
Into dens for jackals;
And I will make the towns of Judah
A desolation without inhabitants.
11What man is so wise
That he understands this?
To whom has the LORD’s mouth spoken,
So that he can explain it:
Why is the land in ruins,
Laid waste like a wilderness,
With none passing through?
12The LORD replied: Because they forsook the Teaching I had set before them. They did not obey Me and they did not follow it, 13but followed their own willful heart and followed the Baalim, as their fathers had taught them. 14Assuredly, thus said the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to feed that people wormwood and make them drink a bitter draft. 15I will scatter them among nations which they and their fathers never knew; and I will dispatch the sword after them until I have consumed them.
16Thus said the LORD of Hosts:
Listen!
Summon the dirge-singers, let them come;
17Send for the skilled women, let them come.
Let them quickly start a wailing for us,
That our eyes may run with tears,
Our pupils flow with water.
18For the sound of wailing
Is heard from Zion:
How we are despoiled!
How greatly we are shamed!
Ah, we must leave our land,
Abandonc our dwellings!
19Hear, O women, the word of the LORD,
Let your ears receive the word of His mouth,
And teach your daughters wailing,
And one another lamentation.
20For death has climbed through our windows,
Has entered our fortresses,
To cut off babes from the streets,
Young men from the squares.
21Speak thus—says the LORD:
The carcasses of men shall lie
Like dung upon the fields,
Like sheaves behind the reaper,
With none to pick them up.
22Thus said the LORD:
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom;
Let not the strong man glory in his strength;
Let not the rich man glory in his riches.
23But only in this should one glory:
In his earnest devotion to Me.
For I the LORD act with kindness,
Justice, and equity in the world;
For in these I delight
—declares the LORD.
24Lo, days are coming—declares the LORD—when I will take note of everyone d-circumcised in the foreskin:-d 25of Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the desert dwellers who have the hair of their temples clipped. For all these nations are uncircumcised, but all the House of Israel are e-uncircumcised of heart.-e
10 Hear the word which the LORD has spoken to you, O House of Israel!
2Thus said the LORD:
Do not learn to go the way of the nations,
And do not be dismayed by portents in the sky;
Let the nations be dismayed by them!
3For a-the laws of the nations-a are delusions:
For it is the work of a craftsman’s hands.
He cuts down a tree in the forest with an ax,
4He adorns it with silver and gold,
He fastens itb with nails and hammer,
So that it does not totter.
5They are like a scarecrow in a cucumber patch,
They cannot speak.
They have to be carried,
For they cannot walk.
Be not afraid of them, for they can do no harm;
Nor is it in them to do any good.
6O LORD, there is none like You!
You are great and Your name is great in power.
7Who would not revere You, O King of the nations?
For that is Your due,
Since among all the wise of the nations
And among all their royalty
There is none like You.
8But they are both dull and foolish;
c-[Their] doctrine is but delusion;-c
It is a piece of wood,
9Silver beaten flat, that is brought from Tarshish,
And gold from Uphaz,
The work of a craftsman and the goldsmith’s hands;
Their clothing is blue and purple,
All of them are the work of skilled men.
10But the LORD is truly God:
He is a living God,
The everlasting King.
At His wrath, the earth quakes,
And nations cannot endure His rage.
11dThus shall you say to them: Let the gods, who did not make heaven and earth, perish from the earth and from under these heavens.
12He made the earth by His might,
Established the world by His wisdom,
And by His understanding stretched out the skies.
13e-When He makes His voice heard,-e
There is a rumbling of water in the skies;
He makes vapors rise from the end of the earth,
He makes lightning for the rain,
And brings forth wind from His treasuries.
14Every man is proved dull, without knowledge;
Every goldsmith is put to shame because of the idol,
For his molten image is a deceit—
There is no breath in them.
15They are delusion, a work of mockery;
In their hour of doom, they shall perish.
16Not like these is the Portion of Jacob;
For
