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16 Thus says the Lord:
Stand at the crossroads and look,
and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way lies; and walk in it,
and find rest for your souls.
But they said, “We will not walk in it.”(A)
17 Also I raised up sentinels for you:
“Give heed to the sound of the trumpet!”
But they said, “We will not give heed.”(B)
18 Therefore hear, O nations,
and know, O congregation, what will happen to them.
19 Hear, O earth; I am going to bring disaster on this people,
the fruit of their schemes,
because they have not given heed to my words,
and as for my teaching, they have rejected it.(C)
20 Of what use to me is frankincense that comes from Sheba
or sweet cane from a distant land?
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable,
nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me.(D)
21 Therefore thus says the Lord:
See, I am laying before this people
stumbling blocks against which they shall stumble;
parents and children together,
neighbor and friend shall perish.(E)
22 Thus says the Lord:
See, a people is coming from the land of the north;
a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.(F)
23 They grasp the bow and the javelin;
they are cruel and have no mercy;
their sound is like the roaring sea;
they ride on horses,
equipped like a warrior for battle,
against you, O daughter Zion!(G)
24 “We have heard news of them;
our hands fall helpless;
anguish has taken hold of us,
pain as of a woman in labor.(H)
25 Do not go out into the field
or walk on the road,
for the enemy has a sword;
terror is on every side.”(I)
26 O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth
and roll in ashes;
make mourning as for an only child,
most bitter lamentation,
for suddenly the destroyer
will come upon us.(J)
27 I have made you a tester and a refiner[a] among my people
so that you may know and test their ways.
28 They are all stubbornly rebellious,
going about with slanders;
they are bronze and iron;
all of them act corruptly.(K)
29 The bellows blow fiercely;
the lead is consumed by the fire;[b]
in vain the refining goes on,
for the wicked are not removed.
30 They are called “rejected silver,”
for the Lord has rejected them.
Jeremiah Proclaims God’s Judgment on the Nation
7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah, you who enter these gates to worship the Lord. 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you[c] in this place. 4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: “This is[d] the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.”
5 For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another,(L) 6 if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt,(M) 7 then I will dwell with you[e] in this place, in the land that I gave to your ancestors forever and ever.
8 Here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail.(N) 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known(O) 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, “We are safe!”—only to go on doing all these abominations?(P) 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? I, too, am watching, says the Lord.(Q) 12 Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.(R) 13 And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently, you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer,(S) 14 therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your ancestors just what I did to Shiloh.(T) 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, just as I cast out all your kinsfolk, all the offspring of Ephraim.(U)
The People’s Disobedience
16 As for you, do not pray for this people, do not raise a cry or prayer on their behalf, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you.(V) 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.(W) 19 Is it I whom they provoke? says the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own hurt?(X) 20 Therefore thus says the Lord God: My anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on humans and animals, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.
21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.(Y) 22 For in the day that I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.(Z) 23 But this command I gave them, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.”(AA) 24 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but, in the stubbornness of their evil will, they walked in their own counsels and looked backward rather than forward.(AB) 25 From the day that your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day,(AC) 26 yet they did not listen to me or pay attention, but they stiffened their necks. They did worse than their ancestors did.(AD)
27 So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you.(AE) 28 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; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.(AF)
29 Cut off your hair and throw it away;
raise a lamentation on the bare heights,[f]
for the Lord has rejected and forsaken
the generation that provoked his wrath.(AG)
30 For the people of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord; they have set their abominations in the house that is called by my name, defiling it.(AH) 31 And they go on building the high place[g] of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire—which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind.(AI) 32 Therefore the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when it will no more be called Topheth or the valley of the son of Hinnom but the valley of Slaughter, for they will bury in Topheth until there is no more room.(AJ) 33 The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the air and for the animals of the earth, and no one will frighten them away. 34 And I will bring to an end the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of the bride and bridegroom in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, for the land shall become a waste.(AK)
8 At that time, says the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs,(AL) 2 and they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have followed, and which they have inquired of and worshiped, and they shall not be gathered or buried; they shall be like dung on the surface of the ground.(AM) 3 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, says the Lord of hosts.(AN)
The Blind Perversity of the Whole Nation
4 You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
When people fall, do they not get up again?
If they go astray, do they not turn back?(AO)
5 Why then has this people[h] turned away
in perpetual faithlessness?
They have held fast to deceit;
they have refused to return.(AP)
6 I have given heed and listened,
but they do not speak honestly;
no one repents of wickedness,
saying, “What have I done!”
All of them turn to their own course
like a horse plunging headlong into battle.(AQ)
7 Even the stork in the heavens
knows its times,
and the turtledove, swallow, and crane[i]
observe the time of their coming,
but my people do not know
the ordinance of the Lord.(AR)
8 Watch out that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental principles[a] of the world, and not according to Christ.(A) 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.(B) 11 In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision,[b] by the removal of the body[c] of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ;(C) 12 when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.(D) 13 And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God[d] made you[e] alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses,(E) 14 erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed[f] the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.(F)
16 Therefore, do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food or[g] drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths.(G) 17 These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the body belongs to Christ. 18 Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, initiatory visions,[h] puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking,[i] 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with a growth that is from God.(H)
Warnings against False Teachers
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental principles[j] of the world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations,(I) 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings.(J) 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence.[k]
Psalm 78
God’s Goodness and Israel’s Ingratitude
A Maskil of Asaph.
1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.(A)
2 I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,(B)
3 things that we have heard and known,
that our ancestors have told us.(C)
4 We will not hide them from their children;
we will tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might
and the wonders that he has done.(D)
5 He established a decree in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to teach to their children,(E)
6 that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and rise up and tell them to their children,(F)
7 so that they should set their hope in God,
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;(G)
8 and that they should not be like their ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.(H)
9 The Ephraimites, armed with[a] the bow,
turned back on the day of battle.(I)
10 They did not keep God’s covenant
and refused to walk according to his law.(J)
11 They forgot what he had done
and the miracles that he had shown them.(K)
12 In the sight of their ancestors he worked marvels
in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.(L)
13 He divided the sea and let them pass through it
and made the waters stand like a heap.(M)
14 In the daytime he led them with a cloud
and all night long with a fiery light.(N)
15 He split rocks open in the wilderness
and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.(O)
16 He made streams come out of the rock
and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
17 Yet they sinned still more against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.(P)
18 They tested God in their heart
by demanding the food they craved.(Q)
19 They spoke against God, saying,
“Can God spread a table in the wilderness?(R)
20 Even though he struck the rock so that water gushed out
and torrents overflowed,
can he also give bread
or provide meat for his people?”(S)
21 Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of rage;
a fire was kindled against Jacob,
his anger mounted against Israel,(T)
22 because they had no faith in God
and did not trust his saving power.(U)
23 Yet he commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven;(V)
24 he rained down on them manna to eat
and gave them the grain of heaven.(W)
25 Mortals ate of the bread of angels;
he sent them food in abundance.
26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,
and by his power he led out the south wind;(X)
27 he rained flesh upon them like dust,
winged birds like the sand of the seas;(Y)
28 he let them fall within their camp,
all around their dwellings.
29 And they ate and were well filled,
for he gave them what they craved.(Z)
30 But before they had satisfied their craving,
while the food was still in their mouths,
31 the anger of God rose against them,
and he killed the strongest of them
and laid low the flower of Israel.(AA)
26 One who gives an honest answer
gives a kiss on the lips.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.