good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they say: We will not do it.

I have set watchmen over you. Heed the voice of the trumpets. But they speak: We will not do it.

Hear therefore, ye Gentiles, and take heed with your people.

O earth, listen! Behold, I will bring a calamity upon this people, their deserved reward, that they will not heed my words, and will reject my law.

Why ask I for the incense that cometh out of the kingdom of Arabia, and for the good cinnamon bark that cometh from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable to me, and your sacrifices are not pleasing to me.

Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will set a stumblingblock before this people, and both fathers and children shall stumble together, and one neighbour shall perish with another.

Thus saith the LORD; Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation shall rise up hard against our land,

Who bear bows and shields. They are cruel and without mercy; they roar like a raging sea; they ride on horses, armed like men of war, against you, O daughter of Zion.

When we shall hear of them, our fists shall fall out: we shall be afraid and sore as one that travaileth in childbirth.

Let no man go out into the field, neither let any man pass over the ground: for in every place there is no safety from the sword of the enemy.

O daughter of my people, wear sackcloth, and lay thee in ashes: mourn as for an only son, and lament as they that are highly afflicted: for the destroyer cometh upon us suddenly.

I have set thee to be a smelter among my people, which are so hard, that thou shalt know and try their nature.

They are all apostates, and walk deceitfully: they are vain corruptors of brass and iron.

The bellows are burned up, the lead disappeareth: the melting is vain, for the evil is not separated therefrom.

Wherefore they are called rejected silver: for the LORD hath rejected them.
(Jeremiah)
Chapter 7
Outward worship without true repentance is an abomination in the sight of God.

This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: 2. Enter ye into the gate of the house of the LORD, and preach there this word, saying, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah that enter into these gates to worship the LORD.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Your life and your substance will I dwell with you in this place.

Do not listen to their lies when they say, Here is the Lord’s temple, here is the Lord’s temple, here is the Lord’s temple.

But amend your lives and your ways, that ye may do right one to another.

And do no violence to strangers, orphans, or widows, nor shed innocent blood in this place; and follow not after other gods to your own hurt;

I will dwell with you always in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers.

But now ye rely upon lies, which are of no profit.

Besides these, ye are thieves, and murderers, and adulterers, and perjurers, and burn incense unto Baal, and go after strange gods, which ye know not.

Then come ye, and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, There is no need of us, because we do such abominations.

Think ye then that this house, which is called by my name, is a den of thieves? Behold, I see it, saith the LORD.

Go to my place at Shiloh, where my name dwelt before, and see what I have done there for the wickedness of my people Israel.

Because ye all do such things, saith the LORD, and I always preach unto you, and ye will not
hear; I call you, and ye will not answer:

Then will I do unto the house which is called by my name, in which ye trust, and unto the place which I gave unto your fathers, even as I did unto Shiloh.

And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, all the seed of Ephraim.

And thou shalt not plead for this people, neither shalt thou make complaint nor prayer for them, neither shalt thou plead for them before me: for I will not hear thee.

For seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?

The children read wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to bake cakes unto Melecheth of heaven, and to give drink offerings unto the strange gods, that they may offend me.

But they shall not be grieved with me, saith the LORD, but with themselves, and shall be put to shame.

Therefore thus saith the LORD GOD; Behold, my wrath and my fury is poured out upon this place, both upon men, and upon cattle, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, that none may quench it.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Set your burnt offerings and your sacrifices in abundance, and eat flesh.

For I spake not unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, neither commanded I them of burnt offerings, and of sacrifices,

But this I commanded them, saying, Obey my word, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people, and walk in all the ways which I command you, that it may be well with you.

But they would not hear, nor incline their ears, but walked after their own counsel, and after the counsel of their evil heart, and went behind them, and not before them.

Yea, from the day that I brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt unto this day have I sent unto you all my servants the prophets.

But they will not hearken unto me, nor incline their ears; but are stiffnecked, and do worse than their fathers.

And though thou say these things unto them, yet will they not hear thee: if thou call unto them, they will not answer thee.

Therefore say unto them: This is the people that will not hear the LORD their God, nor amend themselves. Faith is perished and cut off from their mouths.

Cut off thy hair, and cast it from thee, and howl piteously in the high places: for the LORD
hath rejected and cast away this generation, against whom he is wroth.

For the children of Judah do evil in my sight, saith the LORD. They put their abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it,

And they build the altars of Topheth in the valley of Benhinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters: which I commanded not, neither did I take in mind.

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Topheth, and the valley of Ben-hinnom, but the valley of choke: and they shall bury in Topheth, because there shall be no more room.

And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the air, and for the beasts of the earth: no man shall scare them away.

And I will take away in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, the cry of joy and gladness, and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.
Chap. 8, v. 1.At that time, saith the LORD, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of their princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, shall be cast out of their graves.

And they shall be scattered among the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which loved them, and served them, and followed them, and sought them, and worshipped them.
They shall not be gathered up again, nor buried, but shall be dung upon the earth.

And all the remnant of this wicked people, in the place whither I have cast them out, shall rather be dead than alive, saith the LORD of hosts.
(Jeremiah)
Chapter 8
The unrepentant Jews are threatened with the Chaldean invasion.

Say therefore unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Where is there any that falleth, which will not gladly rise again? Where is there any that goeth astray, which will not gladly recover himself?

For yet this people of Jerusalem will go astray for ever and ever. They hold so hard to the false worship, that they will not be turned away.

I see and hear that they teach nothing right. There is none that is sorry for his wickedness, saying, What do I do? They all run their course like a fierce stallion at war.

A stork under heaven knoweth his time, a turtledove, a crane, and a swallow, know their time, when they shall return: but my people will not know the right of the LORD.

How can ye say, We know what is right, and have the scriptures before us? For what the scribes say is a lie.

Therefore such teachers must be put to shame, and be afraid, and be taken: for what good can they teach, because they reject the word of the LORD?

Therefore will I give their wives unto strangers, and their fields unto them that drive them out. For they are all covetous, both small and great; and both priests and prophets teach false worship.

And they comfort my people in their affliction, that they should esteem them little, saying, Peace, peace; and yet is not peace.

Therefore shall they be