Day 286 of 730

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

²"Stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, 'Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.

³Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

⁴Do not trust in lying words, saying, "The Lord's temple, The Lord's temple, The Lord's temple, are these."

⁵For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;

⁶if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt:

⁷then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forevermore.

⁸Behold, you trust in lying words, that can't profit.

⁹Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known,

¹⁰and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, "We are delivered"; that you may do all these abominations?

¹¹Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says the Lord.

¹²But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

¹³Now, because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear; and I called you, but you did not answer:

¹⁴therefore will I do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

¹⁵I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

¹⁶Therefore do not pray for this people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear you.

¹⁷Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁸The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

¹⁹Do they provoke me to anger?" says the Lord. "Do they not provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?"

²⁰Therefore thus says the Lord God: "Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched."

²¹Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat meat.

²²For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:

²³but this thing I commanded them, saying, 'Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.'

²⁴But they did not listen nor turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

²⁵Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:

²⁶yet they did not listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers."

²⁷"You shall speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will not answer you.

²⁸You shall tell them, 'This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of the Lord their God, nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

²⁹Cut off your hair, and throw it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.'"

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.

³¹They 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 mind.

³²Therefore behold, the days come," says the Lord, "that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, until there is no place to bury.

³³The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth; and none shall frighten them away.

³⁴Then will I 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 shall become a waste."

¹"At that time," says the Lord, "they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves;

²and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the army of the sky, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung on the surface of the earth.

³Death shall 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, 'Thus says the Lord: Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return?

⁵Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

⁶I listened and heard, but they did not speak what is right: no man repents him of his wickedness, saying, "What have I done?" Everyone turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.

⁷Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times; and the turtledove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people do not know the Lord's law.

⁸How can you say, "We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us?" But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely.

⁹The wise men are disappointed, they are dismayed and taken: behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what kind of wisdom is in them?

¹⁰Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to those who shall possess them: for everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest every one deals falsely.

¹¹They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, "Peace, peace;" when there is no peace.

¹²Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says the Lord.

¹³I will utterly consume them, says the Lord: no grapes shall be on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.'"

¹⁴"Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there; for the Lord our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord.

¹⁵We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!

¹⁶The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles; for they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those who dwell therein.

¹⁷For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you," says the Lord.

¹⁸"Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! My heart is faint within me.

¹⁹Behold, 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 vanities?"

²⁰"'The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.'

²¹For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay has taken hold on me.

²²Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then isn't the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

¹Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his loving kindness endures forever.

²Give thanks to the God of gods; for his loving kindness endures forever.

³Give thanks to the Lord of lords; for his loving kindness endures forever:

⁴To him who alone does great wonders; for his loving kindness endures forever:

⁵To him who by understanding made the heavens; for his loving kindness endures forever:

⁶To him who spread out the earth above the waters; for his loving kindness endures forever:

⁷To him who made the great lights; for his loving kindness endures forever:

⁸The sun to rule by day; for his loving kindness endures forever;

⁹The moon and stars to rule by night; for his loving kindness endures forever:

¹⁰To him who struck down the Egyptian firstborn; for his loving kindness endures forever;

¹¹And brought out Israel from among them; for his loving kindness endures forever;

¹²With a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm; for his loving kindness endures forever:

¹³To him who divided the Red Sea apart; for his loving kindness endures forever;

¹⁴And made Israel to pass through its midst; for his loving kindness endures forever;

¹⁵But overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea; for his loving kindness endures forever:

¹⁶To him who led his people through the wilderness; for his loving kindness endures forever:

¹⁷To him who struck great kings; for his loving kindness endures forever;

¹⁸And killed mighty kings; for his loving kindness endures forever:

¹⁹Sihon king of the Amorites; for his loving kindness endures forever;

²⁰Og king of Bashan; for his loving kindness endures forever;

²¹And gave their land as an inheritance; for his loving kindness endures forever;

²²Even a heritage to Israel his servant; for his loving kindness endures forever:

²³Who remembered us in our low estate; for his loving kindness endures forever;

²⁴And has delivered us from our adversaries; for his loving kindness endures forever:

²⁵Who gives food to every creature; for his loving kindness endures forever.

²⁶Oh give thanks to the God of heaven; for his loving kindness endures forever.

¹My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.

²Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.

³Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Tell wisdom, "You are my sister." Call understanding your relative,

⁵that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.

⁶For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice.

⁷I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,

⁸passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house,

⁹in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness.

¹⁰Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent.

¹¹She is loud and defiant. Her feet do not stay in her house.

¹²Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner.

¹³So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him:

¹⁴"Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. This day I have paid my vows.

¹⁵Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you.

¹⁶I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let's take our fill of loving until the morning. Let's solace ourselves with loving.

¹⁹For my husband isn't at home. He has gone on a long journey.

²⁰He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon."

²¹With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.

²²He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose.

²³Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn't know that it will cost his life.

²⁴Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Do not let your heart turn to her ways. Do not go astray in her paths,

²⁶for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.