The Hebrew Prophets

This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ‘Where is the good way?’ Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it!’

I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen for the sound of the ram’s horn.’ But they answered, ‘We will not listen!’

Therefore hear, O nations, and learn, O congregations, what will happen to them.

Hear, O earth! I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their own schemes, because they have paid no attention to My word and have rejected My instruction.

What use to Me is frankincense from Sheba or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please Me.”

Therefore this is what the LORD says: “I will lay stumbling blocks before this people; fathers and sons alike will be staggered; friends and neighbors will perish.”

This is what the LORD says: “Behold, an army is coming from the land of the north; a great nation is stirred up from the ends of the earth.

They grasp the bow and spear; they are cruel and merciless. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses, lined up like men in formation against you, O Daughter of Zion.”

We have heard the report; our hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped us, pain like that of a woman in labor.

Do not go out to the fields; do not walk the road. For the enemy has a sword; terror is on every side.

O daughter of my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as you would for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.

“I have appointed you to examine My people like ore, so you may know and try their ways.

All are hardened rebels, walking around as slanderers. They are bronze and iron; all of them are corrupt.

The bellows blow fiercely, blasting away the lead with fire. The refining proceeds in vain, for the wicked are not purged.

They are called rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them.”

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

“Stand in the gate of the house of the LORD and proclaim this message: Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the LORD.

Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Correct your ways and deeds, and I will let you live in this place.

Do not trust in deceptive words, chanting: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’

For if you really correct your ways and deeds, if you act justly toward one another,

if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm,

then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

But look, you keep trusting in deceptive words to no avail.

Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known,

and then come and stand before Me in this house, which bears My Name, and say, ‘We are delivered, so we can continue with all these abominations’?