Evil in the Land
The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah and he was told to stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and proclaim the Lord’s word to all the men of Judah who would enter the gates to worship the Lord.
The Lord said, “Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.'”
Jeremiah continued on behalf of the Lord and said, “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.” -Jeremiah 7:5-7
The Lord continued with explaining how they had all been through similar events like that before, as in Shiloh. There, the Lord made his name dwell and still it was destroyed because of the evil of the people of Israel. God would cast them out of his sight, as he cast out all their kinsman.
Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.” -Jeremiah 7:20
The Lord explained that he commanded the people of some things and other things he did not, “But this command I gave them: ‘Obey 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.'”
But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.
From the day that their fathers came out of the land of Egypt to that day, the Lord had persistently sent all his servants the prophets to them, day after day. Yet they still did not listen to him or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.
The Valley of Slaughter
The sons of Judah had done evil in the sight of the Lord, doing detestable things and defiling the house of the Lord. They built high places of Topheth, which was in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters in fire, which the Lord never commanded them to do, or even had those thoughts go into his mind.
Therefore, the days were coming when that place would no longer keep its name, but be called the Valley of Slaughter, for they would bury there because there wouldn’t be any room elsewhere.
All the bones of the people of Jerusalem would be removed from the tombs and taken to that land, for they would no longer be buried, but spread before the sun and moon and all the host of heaven, which they had gone after and served and worshiped. They would not be gathered or buried.
“Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts. -Jeremiah 8:3
Sin and Treachery
I have paid attention and listened,
but they have not spoken rightly;
no man relents of his evil,
saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turns to his own course,
like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
-Jeremiah 8:6
“How can you say, ‘We are wise,
and the law of the Lord is with us?’
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
has made it into a lie.
The wise men shall be put to shame;
they shall be dismayed and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
so what wisdom is in them?”
-Jeremiah 8:8-9
“Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
says the Lord.”
-Jeremiah 8:12
“We looked for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
-Jeremiah 8:15
Jeremiah Grieves for His People
My joy is gone; grief is upon me,
my heart is sick within me.
Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
from the length and breadth of the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
Is her King not in her?”
“Why have they provoked me to anger
with their carved images and with their foreign idols?”
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.”
For the wound of the daughter of my people
is my heart wounded;
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
-Jeremiah 8:18-21
Oh that my head were waters,
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night
for the slain of the daughter of my people!
-Jeremiah 9:1
Let everyone beware of his neighbor,
and put no trust in any brother,
for every brother is a deceiver,
and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.
Everyone deceives his neighbor,
and no one speaks the truth;
they have taught their tongue to speak lies;
they weary themselves committing iniquity.
Heaping oppression upon oppression,
and deceit upon deceit,
they refuse to know me,
declares the Lord.
-Jeremiah 9:4-6
Their tongue is a deadly arrow’
it speaks deceitfully;
with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor,
but in his heart he plans to ambush for him.
Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the Lord,
and shall I not avenge myself on a nation as this?
-Jeremiah 9:8-9
The Lord continued with saying that because the people had forsaken His law that was set before them and not obeyed His voice or walked in accord with it, but had stubbornly followed their own hearts and gone astray; they would be fed bitter food and poisonous water to drink. They would be scattered among the nations neither they nor their fathers had known. The Lord would send the sword after them until all were consumed.
Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;
send for the skillful women to come;
let them make haste and raise a wailing over us,
that our eyes may run down with tears
and our eyelids flow with water.”
-Jeremiah 9:17-18
Thus says the Lord:
“Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom,
let not the mighty man boast in his might,
let not the rich man boast in his riches,
but let him who boasts boast in this,
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love,
justice, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these things I delight,
declares the Lord.”
-Jeremiah 9:23-24