Jeremiah 7:30-34
The Valley of Death
“The people of Judah have done what is evil in my eyes,” announces the Lord. “They have set up statues of their gods. They have worshiped them in the house where my Name is. They have made my house ‘unclean.’ I hate those statues. The people have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. There they worship other gods. And there they sacrifice their children in the fire. That is something I did not command. It did not even enter my mind. So watch out!” announces the Lord. “The days are coming when people will not call it Topheth anymore. And they will not call it the Valley of Ben Hinnom either. Instead, they will call it the Valley of Death. They will bury the dead bodies of some people in Topheth. But they will run out of room. Then they will not be able to bury the bodies of other people there. So the bodies will become food for birds and wild animals. And no one will scare them away. I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness. The voices of brides and grooms will not be heard anymore. There will be no sounds of joy in the towns of Judah. And there will be no joy in the streets of Jerusalem. The land will become a desert.
Jeremiah 8:1-22
“At that time the tombs will be opened,” announces the Lord. “The bones of the kings and officials of Judah will be brought out. The bones of the priests and prophets will be removed. So will the bones of the people of Jerusalem. They will lie outside under the sun, moon and all the stars. All these people had loved and served these things. They had followed them and worshiped them. They had asked them for advice. So the bones of these people will not be gathered up or buried again. Instead, they will be like human waste lying there on the ground. Everyone left alive in this evil nation will want to die rather than live. That is what they will long for in the lands where I force them to go.” The Lord who rules over all announces this.
The Lord Punishes His Sinful People
“Jeremiah, tell them, ‘The Lord says,
“ ‘ “When people fall down, don’t they get up again?
When someone turns away, don’t they come back?
Then why have the people of Jerusalem turned away from me?
Why do they always turn away?
They keep on telling lies.
They refuse to come back to me.
I have listened carefully.
But they do not say what is right.
They refuse to turn away from their sins.
None of them says, ‘What have I done?’
Each of them goes their own way.
They are like horses charging into battle.
Storks know when to fly south.
So do doves, swifts and thrushes.
But my people do not know
what I require them to do.
“ ‘ “How can you people say, ‘We are wise.
We have the law of the Lord’?
Actually, the teachers of the law have told lies about it.
Their pens have not written what is true.
Those who think they are wise will be put to shame.
They will become terrified. They will be trapped.
They have not accepted my message.
So what kind of wisdom do they have?
I will give their wives to other men.
I will give their fields to new owners.
Everyone wants to get richer and richer.
Everyone is greedy, from the least important to the most important.
Prophets and priests alike
try to fool everyone they can.
They bandage the wounds of my people
as if they were not very deep.
‘Peace, peace,’ they say.
But there isn’t any peace.
Are they ashamed of their hateful actions?
No. They do not feel any shame at all.
They do not even know how to blush.
So they will fall like others who have already fallen.
They will be brought down when I punish them,”
says the Lord.
“ ‘ “I will take away their harvest,”
announces the Lord.
“There will not be any grapes on the vines.
The trees will not bear any figs.
The leaves on the trees will dry up.
What I have given my people
will be taken away from them.” ’ ”
Why are we sitting here?
Let’s gather together!
Let’s run to the cities that have high walls around them!
Let’s die there!
The Lord our God has sentenced us to death.
He has given us poisoned water to drink.
That’s because we’ve sinned against him.
We hoped peace would come.
But nothing good has happened to us.
We hoped we would finally be healed.
But there is only terror.
When our enemy’s horses snort,
the noise is heard all the way from the city of Dan.
When their stallions neigh,
the whole land trembles with fear.
They have come to destroy
the land and everything in it.
The city and everyone who lives there will be destroyed.
“People of Judah, I will send poisonous snakes among you.
No one will be able to charm them.
And they will bite you,”
announces the Lord.
Lord, my heart is weak inside me.
You comfort me when I’m sad.
Listen to the cries of my people
from a land far away.
They cry out, “Isn’t the Lord in Zion?
Isn’t its King there anymore?”
The Lord says, “Why have they made me so angry
by worshiping their wooden gods?
Why have they made me angry
with their worthless statues
of gods from other lands?”
The people say, “The harvest is over.
The summer has ended.
And we still haven’t been saved.”
My people are crushed, so I am crushed.
I mourn, and I am filled with horror.
Isn’t there any healing lotion in Gilead?
Isn’t there a doctor there?
Then why doesn’t someone heal
the wounds of my people?
Jeremiah 9:1-16
I wish my head were a spring of water!
I wish my eyes were a fountain of tears!
I would weep day and night
for my people who have been killed.
I wish I had somewhere to go in the desert
where a traveler could stay!
Then I could leave my people.
I could get away from them.
All of them commit adultery by worshiping other gods.
They aren’t faithful to the Lord.
“They get ready to use
their tongues like bows,”
announces the Lord.
“Their mouths shoot out lies like arrows.
They tell lies to gain power in the land.
They go from one sin to another.
They do not pay any attention to me.
Be on guard against your friends.
Do not trust the members of your own family.
Every one of them cheats.
Every friend tells lies.
One friend cheats another.
No one tells the truth.
They have taught their tongues how to lie.
They wear themselves out sinning.
Jeremiah, you live among people who tell lies.
When they lie, they refuse to pay any attention to me,”
announces the Lord.
So the Lord who rules over all says,
“I will put them through the fire to test them.
What else can I do?
My people are so sinful!
Their tongues are like deadly arrows.
They tell lies.
With their mouths all of them speak kindly to their neighbors.
But in their hearts they set traps for them.
Shouldn’t I punish them for this?”
announces the Lord.
“Shouldn’t I pay back the nation
that does these things?”
I will cry and mourn over the mountains.
I will sing a song of sadness about the desert grasslands.
They are dry and empty. No one travels through them.
The mooing of cattle isn’t heard there.
The birds have flown away.
All the animals are gone.
The Lord says, “I will knock down all of Jerusalem’s buildings.
I will make it a home for wild dogs.
The towns of Judah will be completely destroyed.
No one will be able to live in them.”
Who is wise enough to understand these things? Who has been taught by the Lord? Who can explain them? Why has the land been destroyed so completely? Why has it become like a desert that no one can go across?
The Lord answered me, “Because my people have turned away from my law. I gave it to them. But they have not kept it. They have not obeyed me. Instead, they have done what their stubborn hearts wanted them to do. They have worshiped the gods that are named Baal. They have done what their people have taught them to do through the years.” So now the Lord who rules over all speaks. He is the God of Israel. He says, “I will make these people eat bitter food. I will make them drink poisoned water. I will scatter them among the nations. They and their people before them didn’t know about these nations. With swords I will chase these people. I will hunt them down until I have destroyed them.”
