19. They aren’t really provoking me,” declares the Lord. “But they are ⌊harming⌋ themselves to their own shame.
20. “This is what the Almighty Lord says: My anger and fury will be poured out on this place, on humans and animals, and on trees and crops. My anger and fury will burn and not be put out.
21. “This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the meat.
22. When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I did not tell them anything about burnt offerings and sacrifices.
23. But I did tell them this, ‘Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Live the way I told you to live so that things will go well for you.’
24. But they didn’t obey me or pay attention to me. They followed their own plans and their stubborn, evil ways. They went backward and not forward.
25. From the time that your ancestors left Egypt until now, I have sent all my servants the prophets to you again and again.
26. But you didn’t obey me or pay attention to me. You became impossible to deal with, and you were worse than your ancestors.
27. “Jeremiah, you will say all these things to them, but they will not obey you. You will call to them, but they will not respond to you.
28. You will say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the Lord their God. They did not accept discipline. Truth has disappeared and vanished from their lips.’
29. “Cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a song of mourning on the bare hills, because in his anger the Lord has rejected and abandoned the people of this generation.
30. The people of Judah have done what I consider evil,” declares the Lord. “They set up their detestable idols in the house that is called by my name. They have made it unclean.
31. They have built worship sites at Topheth in the valley of Ben Hinnom in order to burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices. I did not ask for this. It never entered my mind.
32. “That is why the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when that place will no longer be known as Topheth or the valley of Ben Hinnom. Instead, it will be known as Slaughter Valley. They will bury ⌊people⌋ at Topheth because no other place will be left.
33. The dead bodies of these people will become food for birds and animals, and no one will be there to frighten them away.
34. In the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, I will banish the sounds of joy and happiness and the sounds of brides and grooms, because the land will be a wasteland.”