Though this temple is now exalted, everyone who passes by will be appalled and will scoff. They will say, ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?’
Indeed, if you were to strike down the entire Chaldean army that is fighting with you, and there remained among them only the badly wounded men, each in his tent, they would get up and burn this city.” ’
I am about to give the command #– #this is the Lord’s declaration #– #and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it. I will make Judah’s cities a desolation, without inhabitant.’
The Lord has rejected his altar, repudiated his sanctuary; he has handed the walls of her palaces over to the enemy. They have raised a shout in the house of the Lord as on the day of an appointed festival.
The adversary has seized all her precious belongings. She has even seen the nations enter her sanctuary – those you had forbidden to enter your assembly.
How dare you prophesy in the name of the Lord, “This temple will become like Shiloh and this city will become an uninhabited ruin”! ’ Then all the people crowded around Jeremiah at the Lord’s temple.
But if you do not listen to me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying a load while entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, I will set fire to its gates, and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem and not be extinguished.” ’
eighty men came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria who had shaved their beards, torn their clothes, and gashed themselves, and who were carrying grain and incense offerings to bring to the temple of the Lord.
They will burn your houses and execute judgements against you in the sight of many women. I will stop you from being a prostitute, and you will never again pay fees for lovers.
But I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw a sword to chase after you. So your land will become desolate, and your cities will become ruins.
I will cut off Israel from the land I gave them, and I will reject the temple I have sanctified for my name. Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.
But since our ancestors angered the God of the heavens, he handed them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and deported the people to Babylon.
‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Go, speak to King Zedekiah of Judah, and tell him, “This is what the Lord says: I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it.
The Lord spoke to the man clothed in linen and said, ‘Go inside the wheelwork beneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with blazing coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city.’ So he went in as I watched.