22. In speaking to your ancestors on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I gave them no command concerning burnt offering or sacrifice.
23. This rather is what I commanded them: Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Walk exactly in the way I command you, so that you may prosper.
24. But they did not listen to me, nor did they pay attention. They walked in the stubbornness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.
25. From the day that your ancestors left the land of Egypt even to this day, I kept on sending all my servants the prophets to you.
26. Yet they have not listened to me nor have they paid attention; they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their ancestors.
27. When you speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you either. When you call to them, they will not answer you.
28. Say to them: This is the nation which does not listen to the voice of the Lord, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.
29. Cut off your hair and throw it away!on the heights raise a lament;The Lord has indeed rejected and cast offthe generation that draws down his wrath.
30. The people of Judah have done what is evil in my eyes—oracle of the Lord. They have set up their detestable things in the house which bears my name, thereby defiling it.
31. In the Valley of Ben-hinnom they go on building the high places of Topheth to sacrifice their sons and daughters by fire, something I never commanded or considered.
32. Be assured! Days are coming—oracle of the Lord—when they will no longer say “Topheth” or “Valley of Ben-hinnom” but “Valley of Slaughter.” For want of space, Topheth will become burial ground.
33. The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and beasts of the earth, which no one will drive away.
34. I will silence the cry of joy, the cry of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for the land will be turned to rubble.