1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD {YHWH, Message Giver}, saying {leʾmor: speech marker}.
2 Stand in the gate of the house of the LORD {YHWH, Temple Sovereign}, and proclaim there this word, and say, "Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who enter through these gates to worship {hishtachavot: bowing in reverence} the LORD."
3 Thus says the LORD of hosts {YHWH Tsevaot, Commander of Armies}, the God of Israel {Elohei Yisrael, Covenant Protector}: Amend your ways {derekh: Path, Conduct} and your deeds, and I will cause you to dwell {shaknah: Establish Residence} in this place.
4 Do not trust for yourselves in words of falsehood {sheqer: deception}, saying, "The temple of the LORD {YHWH, Temple Dweller}, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD—these are."
5 For if you genuinely make your ways and your deeds good, and if you truly practice justice {mishpat: righteous judgment} between a person and their neighbor {re‘ehu: close companion}.
6 If you do not oppress the sojourner {ger: resident foreigner}, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your harm {lera: harm to you}.
7 Then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers {avot: ancestors}, from everlasting {olam: perpetual duration} and unto everlasting.
8 Behold, you are trusting for yourselves in words of falsehood {sheqer: delusion}, with the result that they do not profit {ho'il: bring benefit}.
9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, and swear {vehishshavea: take an oath} falsely, and burn incense to Baal {laBaal, Canaanite deity}, and walk after other gods whom you have not known?
10 And you come and stand before Me in this house which is called {nikra: designated} by My name, and you say, "We are delivered" to do all these abominations {hattoevot: detestable acts}.
11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers {paritzim: violent ones} in your eyes? Behold, I Myself have seen it, declares the LORD {YHWH, Supreme Witness}.
12 Go now to my place {mekomi: divine dwelling} in Shiloh, where I first caused my name {shmi: manifested presence} to dwell, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.
13 And now, because you have done all these deeds {ma'asim: actions, works}, declares the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge}, “and I spoke to you, rising early and speaking, but you did not listen; and I called you, but you did not answer.”
14 So I {YHWH, Executor of Judgment} will do to the house that is called by My name, upon which you are trusting, and to the place {makom: divinely assigned land} that I gave to you and to your fathers, just as I did to Shiloh.
15 And I {YHWH, Just Judge} will cast you out from My presence {panai: My face}, just as I cast out all your brothers, all the seed of Ephraim.
16 But as for you, do not pray for these people, and do not lift up for them a cry {rinnah: emotional supplication} or prayer, and do not intercede with Me {bi: toward My presence}, for I am not listening to you.
17 Do you not see {ra'ah: perceive wrongdoing} what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem {Yerushalayim: holy city}?
18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes {kavvanim: ritual bread} for the queen of the heavens, and pour out drink offerings to other gods, in order to provoke Me {YHWH, Jealous Judge}.
19 Are they provoking Me {YHWH, Offended One} to anger? Is it not for the shame of their faces {peneihem: countenances}?
20 Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD {Adonai YHWH, Sovereign Judge}: Behold, my anger and my wrath {vachamati: burning fury} will be poured out upon this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees {ets: field trees} of the field and upon the fruit of the ground; it will burn and will not be quenched.
21 Thus says the LORD of hosts {YHWH Tsevaot, Divine Warrior}, the God of Israel {Elohei Yisrael, Covenant Protector}: "Add your burnt offerings {olot: wholly consumed offerings} to your sacrifices and eat flesh."
22 For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them, in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings {olah: whole burnt offering} or sacrifices {zavach: general offerings}.
23 But this word {davar: binding instruction} I commanded them, saying, "Obey My voice, and I will be your God {Elohim, Covenant Maker}, and you will be My people, and walk in all the ways that I command you, so that it will be well with you."
24 But they did not listen, and did not incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels {moetsot: deliberations} and in the stubbornness of their evil heart {libbam: inner self-will}; and they became backward and not forward.
25 From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I {YHWH, Persistent Sender} have sent all my servants, the prophets {navi: divinely appointed messengers}, to you, rising early each day to send them.
26 Yet they did not listen to Me {YHWH, Covenant Enforcer}, nor did they incline their ear, but they hardened their neck {arpam: Stubborn Resistance}; they did worse than their fathers.
27 And you shall speak {dibarta: proclaim with authority} all these words to them, but they will not listen {shamaʿ: attend, heed} to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you.
28 And you shall say to them, “This is the nation that has not obeyed the voice of the LORD their God {YHWH Elohav, Covenant Authority}, nor accepted discipline {musar: instruction}; faithfulness has perished and is cut off from their mouth.”
29 Cut off your hair and cast it away; lift up a lamentation {kinah: ceremonial cry} on the high places, for the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge} has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.
30 For the sons of Judah have done the evil in My eyes, declares the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Judge}. They have set their abominations {shikkuzeihem: detestable idols} in the house that is called by My name, to defile it.
31 And they built the high places of the Tophet {tophet: place of burning}, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire—a thing which I did not command, nor did it come into my heart {libbi: seat of thought}.
32 “Therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD {YHWH, Divine Judge}, “when it will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but rather the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth because there is no place {makom: available space}.”
33 And the carcass {nivlat: dishonored remains} of this people shall become food for the birds of the heavens {shamayim: cosmic realm} and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.
34 And I {YHWH, Sovereign Judge} will cause to cease from the cities of Judah {Yehudah: southern kingdom} and from the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land will become desolate.