Jer 7, Jer 24, Jer 26 | ESV | STEP | The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord :

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 ^a“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^bAmend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 ^cDo not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

5 “For if you truly ^damend your ways and your deeds, if you truly ^eexecute justice one with another, 6 if you ^fdo not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, ^gor shed innocent blood in this place, ^hand if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, 7 ⁱthen I will let you dwell in this place, ^jin the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 ^kWill you steal, murder, commit adultery, ^lswear falsely, ^mmake offerings to Baal, ⁿand go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, ^owhich is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 ^pHas this house, ^qwhich is called by my name, ^rbecome a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. 12 Go now to ^smy place that was in Shiloh, ^twhere I made my name dwell at first, and ^usee what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and ^vwhen I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and ^wwhen I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to ^xthe house ^ythat is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, ^zas I did to Shiloh. 15 ^aaAnd I will cast you out of my sight, ^abas I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of ^acEphraim.

16 “As for you, ^addo not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, ^aeand the women knead dough, to ^afmake cakes for ^agthe queen of heaven. And ^ahthey pour out drink offerings to other gods, ^aito provoke me to anger. 19 ^ajIs it I whom they provoke? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, ^akto their own shame? 20 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, ^almy 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; ^amit will burn and not be quenched.”

21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^an“Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. 22 For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them ^aoconcerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 But this command I gave them: ^ap‘Obey my voice, and ^aqI will be your God, and you shall be my people. ^arAnd walk in all the way that I command you, ^asthat it may be well with you.’ 24 ^atBut they did not obey or incline their ear, ^aubut walked in their own counsels and ^avthe stubbornness of their evil hearts, and ^awwent backward and not forward. 25 From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, ^axI have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. 26 ^ayYet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, ^azbut stiffened their neck. ^baThey did worse than their fathers.

27 ^bb“So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. ^bcYou shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; ^bdtruth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.

29 ^be“‘Cut off your hair and cast it away;
raise a lamentation on ^bfthe bare heights,
for the Lord has rejected and forsaken
the generation of his wrath.’

The Valley of Slaughter

30 “For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set ^bgtheir detestable things in the house ^bhthat is called by my name, to ^bidefile it. 31 And they have built the high places of ^bjTopheth, which is in ^bkthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, ^blto burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, ^bmwhich I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. 32 ^bnTherefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called ^boTopheth, or ^bpthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; ^bqfor they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. 33 ^brAnd the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, ^bsand none will frighten them away. 34 ^btAnd I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, ^bufor the land shall become a waste.

Jeremiah 24

The Good Figs and the Bad Figs

1 ^bvAfter Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem ^bwJeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with ^bxthe officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision: behold, ^bytwo baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. 2 One basket had very good figs, ^bzlike first-ripe figs, but the other basket had ^cavery bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. 3 And the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

4 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 5 “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, ^cbwhom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6 ^ccI will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. ^cdI will build them up, and not tear them down; ^ceI will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 ^cfI will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, ^cgand they shall be my people ^chand I will be their God, ^cifor they shall return to me with their whole heart.

8 “But thus says the Lord: Like ^cjthe bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat ^ckZedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who ^cldwell in the land of Egypt. 9 I will make them ^cma horror ^{▼▼Compare Septuagint; Hebrew horror for evil} to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be ^coa reproach, ^cpa byword, ^cqa taunt, and ^cra curse in all the places where I shall drive them. 10 And I will send ^cssword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.”

Jeremiah 26

Jeremiah Threatened with Death

1 ^ctIn the beginning of the reign of ^cuJehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the Lord: 2 “Thus says the Lord: ^cvStand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the Lord ^cwall the words that I command you to speak to them; ^cxdo not hold back a word. 3 ^cyIt may be they will listen, and every one turn from his evil way, ^czthat I may relent of the disaster that I intend to do to them ^dabecause of their evil deeds. 4 You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: ^dbIf you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, 5 ^dcand to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you ^ddurgently, ^dethough you have not listened, 6 then I will make this house ^dflike Shiloh, and I will make this city ^dga curse for all the nations of the earth.’”

7 ^dhThe priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. 8 And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then ^dithe priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die! 9 Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘This house shall be ^djlike Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, ^dkwithout inhabitant’?” And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.

10 When ^dlthe officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the Lord and took their seat in the ^dmentry of the New Gate of the house of the Lord. 11 Then ^dnthe priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, ^do“This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”

12 Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people, saying, “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard. 13 Now therefore ^dpmend your ways and your deeds, ^dqand obey the voice of the Lord your God, ^drand the Lord will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you. 14 ^dsBut as for me, behold, I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. 15 Only know for certain that if you put me to death, ^dtyou will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.”

Jeremiah Spared from Death

16 ^duThen the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, ^dv“This man does not deserve the sentence of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.” 17 ^dwAnd certain of ^dxthe elders of the land arose and spoke to all the assembled people, saying, 18 “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and said to all the people of Judah: ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts,

^dy“‘Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
and the mountain of the house a wooded height.’
19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? ^dzDid he not fear the Lord and entreat the favor of the Lord, ^eaand did not the Lord relent of the disaster that he had pronounced against them? ^ebBut we are about to bring great disaster upon ourselves.”

20 There was another man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from ^ecKiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land in words like those of Jeremiah. 21 And when ^edKing Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and all the officials, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt. 22 Then ^eeKing Jehoiakim sent to Egypt certain men, ^efElnathan the son of ^egAchbor and others with him, 23 and they took Uriah from Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, ^ehwho struck him down with the sword and dumped his dead body into the burial place of the common people.

24 But the hand of ^eiAhikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah so that he was not given over to the people to be put to death.