¹ Höret, ihr Kinder Israel, des HERRN Wort! denn der HERR hat Ursache, zu schelten, die im Lande wohnen; denn es ist keine Treue, keine Liebe, keine Erkenntnis Gottes im Lande;

² sondern Gotteslästern, Lügen, Morden, Stehlen und Ehebrechen hat überhandgenommen und eine Blutschuld kommt nach der andern.

³ Darum wird das Land jämmerlich stehen, und allen Einwohnern wird's übel gehen; denn es werden auch die Tiere auf dem Felde und die Vögel unter dem Himmel und die Fische im Meer weggerafft werden.

⁴ Doch man darf nicht schelten noch jemand strafen; denn dein Volk ist wie die, so den Priester schelten.

⁵ Darum sollst du bei Tage fallen und der Prophet des Nachts neben dir fallen; also will ich deine Mutter zu Grunde richten.

⁶ Mein Volk ist dahin, darum daß es nicht lernen will. Denn du verwirfst Gottes Wort; darum will ich dich auch verwerfen, daß du nicht mein Priester sein sollst. Du vergißt das Gesetz deines Gottes; darum will ich auch deine Kinder vergessen.

⁷ Je mehr ihrer wird, je mehr sie wider mich sündigen; darum will ich ihre Ehre zu Schanden machen.

⁸ Sie fressen die Sündopfer meines Volks und sind begierig nach ihren Sünden.

⁹ Darum soll es dem Volk gleich wie dem Priester gehen; denn ich will ihr Tun heimsuchen und ihnen vergelten, wie sie verdienen,

¹⁰ daß sie werden essen, und nicht satt werden, Hurerei treiben und sich nicht ausbreiten, darum daß sie den HERRN verlassen haben und ihn nicht achten.

¹¹ Hurerei, Wein und Most machen toll.

¹² Mein Volk fragt sein Holz, und sein Stab soll ihm predigen; denn der Hurerei-Geist verführt sie, daß sie wider ihren Gott Hurerei treiben.

¹³ Oben auf den Bergen opfern sie, und auf den Hügeln räuchern sie, unter den Eichen, Linden und Buchen; denn die haben feinen Schatten. Darum werden eure Töchter auch zu Huren und eure Bräute zu Ehebrechrinnen werden.

¹⁴ Und ich will's auch nicht wehren, wenn eure Töchter und Bräute geschändet werden, weil ihr einen andern Gottesdienst anrichtet mit den Huren und opfert mit den Bübinnen. Denn das törichte Volk will geschlagen sein.

¹⁵ Willst du, Israel, ja huren, daß sich doch nur Juda nicht auch verschulde. Geht nicht hin gen Gilgal und kommt nicht hinauf gen Beth-Aven und schwört nicht: So wahr der HERR lebt!

¹⁶ Denn Israel läuft wie eine tolle Kuh; so wird sie auch der HERR weiden lassen wie ein Lamm in der Irre.

¹⁷ Denn Ephraim hat sich zu den Götzen gesellt; so laß ihn hinfahren.

¹⁸ Sie haben sich in die Schwelgerei und Hurerei gegeben; ihre Herren haben Lust dazu, daß sie Schande anrichten.

¹⁹ Der Wind mit seinen Flügeln wird sie zusammen wegtreiben; sie müssen über ihrem Opfer zu Schanden werden.

¹¹ Auch machte er Höhen auf den Bergen in Juda und machte die zu Jerusalem abgöttisch und verführte Juda.

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

² "Stand in the gate of Yahweh's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, 'Hear the word of Yahweh, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship Yahweh.

³ Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

⁴ Don't trust in lying words, saying, The temple of Yahweh, The temple of Yahweh, The temple of Yahweh, are these.

⁵ For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;

⁶ if you don't oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don't shed innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt:

⁷ then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forevermore.

⁸ Behold, you trust in lying words, that can't profit.

⁹ Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known,

¹⁰ and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered; that you may do all these abominations?

¹¹ Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says Yahweh.

¹² But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

¹³ Now, because you have done all these works, says Yahweh, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn't hear; and I called you, but you didn't answer:

¹⁴ therefore will I do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

¹⁵ I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

¹⁶ Therefore don't pray for this people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear you.

¹⁷ Don't you see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁸ The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

¹⁹ Do they provoke me to anger? says Yahweh; [do they] not [provoke] themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?

²⁰ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

²¹ Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat meat.

²² For I didn't speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:

²³ but this thing I commanded them, saying, Listen to 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.

²⁴ But they didn't listen nor turn their ear, but walked in [their own] counsels [and] in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

²⁵ Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:

²⁶ yet they didn't listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers.

²⁷ You shall speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will not answer you.

²⁸ You shall tell them, This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of Yahweh their God, nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

²⁹ Cut off your hair, [Jerusalem], and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

³⁰ For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, says Yahweh: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.

³¹ They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I didn't command, nor did it come into my mind.

³² Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, until there be no place [to bury].

³³ The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth; and none shall frighten them away.

³⁴ Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.