18. The children are gathering wood, and the fathers are kindling the fire, and the women are kneading dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out libations to other gods for the sake of provoking me to anger.
19. Are they provoking me to anger? ” declares Yahweh, “Is it not themselves they hurt, for the sake of the shame of their faces?”
20. Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Look, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on the humankind, and on the animal, and on the tree of the field, and on the fruit of the ground, and it will not be extinguished.”
21. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.
22. For I did not speak with your ancestors, nor did I command them in the day of bringing them out from the land of Egypt, concerning the matter of burnt offering and sacrifice.
23. But I only commanded them this word, saying, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be to you God, and you will be to me people, and you must walk in all of the way that I command you, so that it goes well with you.’
24. Yet they did not obey, and they did not incline their ear, but they walked in their own plans, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and they became worse instead of better.
25. From the day that your ancestors came out from the land of Egypt until this day I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, day after day, sending again and again.
26. Yet they have not listened to me and they have not inclined their ear, but they have hardened their neck, they did more evil than their ancestors.
27. So you shall speak to them all these words, but they will not listen to you, and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you.
28. “And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the voice of Yahweh their God, and they have not accepted discipline. The truth has perished, and it is cut off from their mouths.
29. Shear your hair and throw it away, and lift up a lament on the barren heights, for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.’
30. For the people of Judah have done evil in my eyes,” declares Yahweh, “They have set their abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it.
31. And they built the high place of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I have not commanded, and it did not come into my mind.
32. Therefore look, days are about to come,” declares Yahweh, “and it will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of the Slaughter, and they will bury in Topheth until there is no more place.
33. And the dead bodies of this people will be as food for the birds of the heavens, and for the animals of the earth, without anyone to scare them away.
34. And I will cause to disappear from the towns of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the sound of jubilation, and the sound of joy, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, for the land will become a site of ruins.