Jer 7, Jer 32 | 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 32

Jeremiah Buys a Field During the Siege

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord ^bvin the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, ^bwwhich was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 2 At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet ^bxwas shut up in ^bythe court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah. 3 For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, “Why do you prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord: ^bzBehold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall capture it; 4 ^caZedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, ^cbbut shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. 5 And ^cche shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I visit him, declares the Lord. ^cdThough you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed’?”

6 Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me: 7 Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you and say, ^ce‘Buy my field that is at ^cfAnathoth, ^cgfor the right of redemption by purchase is yours.’ 8 Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in ^chthe court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, ‘Buy my field that is at ^ciAnathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

9 “And I bought the field at ^cjAnathoth from Hanamel my cousin, and ^ckweighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. 10 ^clI signed the deed, ^cmsealed it, ^cngot witnesses, and ^coweighed the money on scales. 11 Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions and the open copy. 12 And I gave the deed of purchase to ^cpBaruch the son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my cousin, in the presence of ^cqthe witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in ^crthe court of the guard. 13 I charged ^csBaruch in their presence, saying, 14 ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. 15 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and ^ctfields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.’

Jeremiah Prays for Understanding

16 “After I had given the deed of purchase to ^cuBaruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying: 17 ‘Ah, Lord God! It is ^cvyou who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by ^cwyour outstretched arm! ^cxNothing is too hard for you. 18 ^cyYou show steadfast love to thousands, ^czbut you repay the guilt of fathers ^dato their children after them, O great and ^dbmighty God, whose name is the ^dcLord of hosts, 19 ^ddgreat in counsel and ^demighty in deed, ^dfwhose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, ^dgrewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. 20 You have shown ^dhsigns and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to this day in Israel and among all mankind, ^diand have made a name for yourself, as at this day. 21 ^djYou brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and ^dkoutstretched arm, ^dland with great terror. 22 And you gave them this land, ^dmwhich you swore to their fathers to give them, ^dna land flowing with milk and honey. 23 And they entered and took possession of it. ^doBut they did not obey your voice or walk in your law. They did nothing of all you commanded them to do. Therefore you have made all this disaster come upon them. 24 Behold, ^dpthe siege mounds have come up to the city to take it, and ^dqbecause of sword and famine and pestilence ^drthe city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you spoke has come to pass, and behold, you see it. 25 Yet you, O Lord God, have said to me, ^ds“Buy the field for money ^dtand get witnesses”—though ^duthe city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.’”

26 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 27 “Behold, I am the Lord, ^dvthe God of all flesh. ^dwIs anything too hard for me? 28 Therefore, thus says the Lord: ^dxBehold, I am giving this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall capture it. 29 The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city ^dyshall come and set this city on fire and burn it, ^dzwith the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal ^eaand drink offerings have been poured out to other gods, ^ebto provoke me to anger. 30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight ^ecfrom their youth. The children of Israel have done nothing but ^edprovoke me to anger ^eeby the work of their hands, declares the Lord. 31 This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built to this day, ^efso that I will remove it from my sight 32 because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger— ^egtheir kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 33 ^ehThey have turned to me their back and not their face. And though I have taught them ^eipersistently, they have not listened ^ejto receive instruction. 34 They set up ^ektheir abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. 35 They built the high places of Baal ^elin the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, ^emto offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, ^enthough I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do ^eothis abomination, ^epto cause Judah to sin.

They Shall Be My People; I Will Be Their God

36 “Now therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, ^eq‘It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence’: 37 ^erBehold, I will gather them from all the countries ^esto which I drove them in ^etmy anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, ^euand I will make them dwell in safety. 38 ^evAnd they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 39 ^ewI will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, ^exfor their own good and the good of their children after them. 40 ^eyI will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. ^ezAnd I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. 41 ^faI will rejoice in doing them good, ^fband I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.

42 “For thus says the Lord: ^fcJust as I have brought all this great disaster upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I promise them. 43 ^fdFields shall be bought in this land ^feof which you are saying, ‘It is a desolation, without man or beast; ^ffit is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’ 44 Fields shall be bought for money, and ^fgdeeds shall be signed and ^fhsealed and ^fiwitnessed, ^fjin the land of Benjamin, ^fkin the places about Jerusalem, ^fland in the cities of Judah, ^fmin the cities of the hill country, ^fnin the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negeb; for ^foI will restore their fortunes, declares the Lord.”