Scripture 

 

This is what the Lord of Heaven's Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Take your burnt offerings and your other sacrifices and eat them yourselves!  When I led your ancestors out of Egypt, it was not burnt offerings and sacrifices I wanted from them.  This is what I told them: 'Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well!'

 

"But my people would not listen to me. They kept doing whatever they wanted, following the stubborn desires of their evil hearts. They went backward instead of forward.  From the day your ancestors left Egypt until now, I have continued to send my servants, the prophets-day in and day out.  But my people have not listened to me or even tried to hear. They have been stubborn and sinful-even worse than their ancestors.

 

"Tell them all this, but do not expect them to listen. Shout out your warnings, but do not expect them to respond.  Say to them, 'This is the nation whose people will not obey the Lord their God and who refuse to be taught. Truth has vanished from among them; it is no longer heard on their lips.  Shave your head in mourning, and weep alone on the mountains. For the Lord has rejected and forsaken this generation that has provoked his fury.'

 

"The people of Judah have sinned before my very eyes," says the Lord. "They have set up their abominable idols right in the Temple that bears my name, defiling it.  They have built pagan shrines at Topheth, the garbage dump in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and there they burn their sons and daughters in the fire. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing!  So beware, for the time is coming," says the Lord, "when that garbage dump will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. They will bury the bodies in Topheth until there is no more room for them.  The bodies of my people will be food for the vultures and wild animals, and no one will be left to scare them away.  I will put an end to the happy singing and laughter in the streets of Jerusalem. The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will no longer be heard in the towns of Judah. The land will lie in complete desolation.