¶ These are the words that GOD spake unto Ieremy:
Stond under the gates of the LORD's house, and cry out these words there, with a loud voice, and say: Hear the word of the LORD all ye of Iudah, that go in at this door, to honour the LORD.
Thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts the God of Israel. Amend your ways and your counsels, and I will let you dwell in this place.
Trust not in false lying words, saying: here is the temple of the LORD, here is the temple of the LORD, here is the temple of the LORD.
For if ye will amend your ways and counsels, if ye will judge right betwixt a man and his neighbour:
If ye will not oppress the stranger, the fatherless and the widow: if ye will not shed innocent blood in this place: if ye will not cleave to strange gods to your own destruction:
then will I let you dwell in this place, yea in the land that I gave afore time unto your fathers for ever.
But take heed, ye trust in counsels, that beguile you and do you no good.
For when ye have stolen, murdered, committed advoutry, and penury: When ye have offered unto Baal, following strange and unknown gods:
Then come ye, and stond before me in this house, which hath my name given unto it, and say: Tush, we are absolved quite, though we have done all these abominations.
What? Think you this house that beareth my name, is a den of thieves? And these things are not done privily, but before mine eyes, sayeth the LORD.
Go to my place in Siloh, where unto I gave my name afore time, and look well what I did to the same place for the wickedness of my people of Israel.
And now, though ye have done all these deeds (sayeth the LORD) and I myself rose up ever by times to warn you and to commune with you, yet would ye not hear me: I called, ye would not answer.
And therefore even as I have done to Siloh, so will I do to this house, that my name is given unto (and that ye put your trust in) yea unto the place that I have given to you and your fathers.
And I shall thrust you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren the whole seed of Ephraim.
¶ Therefore thou shalt not pray for this people, thou shalt neither give thanks, nor bid prayer for them: thou shalt make no intercession to me for them for in no wise will I hear thee.
Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Iuda, and without Ierusalem?
The children gather sticks, the fathers kindle the fire, the mothers knead the dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. They pour out drink offerings unto strange gods, to provoke me unto wrath:
How be it they hurt not me (sayeth the LORD) but rather confound, and shame themselves.
And therefore thus sayeth the Lord GOD: Behold, my wrath and my indignation shall be poured out upon this place, upon men and cattle, upon the trees in the field and all fruit of the land, and it shall burn so, that no man may quench it.
¶ Thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Yea heap up your burntofferings with your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.
But when I brought your fathers out of Egypt, I spake no word unto them of burntofferings and sacrifices:
but this I commanded them, saying: hearken and obey my voice, and I shall be your God, and ye shall be my people: so that ye walk in all the ways, which I have commanded you, that ye may prosper.
But they were not obedient, they inclined not their ears there unto, but went after their own imaginations and after the motions of their own wicked heart, and so turned themselves away, and converted not unto me.
And this have they done, from the time that your fathers came out of Egypt, unto this day. Nevertheless, I sent unto them my servants all the prophets: I rose up early and sent them word,
yet would they not hearken, nor offer me their ears, but were obstinate and worse than their fathers.
And thou shalt now speak all these words unto them, but they shall not hear thee: thou shalt cry upon them, but they shall not answer thee.
Therefore shalt thou say unto them: this is the people, that neither heareth the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth his correction. Faithfulness and truth is clean rooted out of their mouth.
¶ Wherefore cut off thine hair, and cast it away, take up a complaint in the whole land: for the LORD shall cast away, and scatter the people, that he is displeased withal.
For the children of Iudah have done evil in my sight, sayeth the LORD. They have set up their abominations, in the house that hath my name, and have defiled it.
They have also builded an altar at Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hennom: that they might burn their sons and daughters, which I never commanded them, neither came it ever in my thought.
And therefore behold, the days shall come (sayeth the LORD) that it shall no more be called Topheth, or the valley of the children of Hennom, but the valley of the slain, for in Topheth, they shall be buried, because they shall else have no room.
Yea the dead bodies of this people shall be eaten up of the fowls of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, and no man shall fraie them away.
And as for the voice of mirth and gladness of the cities of Iudah, and Ierusalem the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride: I will make them cease, for the land shall be desolate.
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.