Evil in the Land

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 ^c“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^dAmend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

5 “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly ^eexecute justice one with another, 6 if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods ^fto your own harm, 7 ^gthen I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is ^hcalled by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a ⁱden of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. 12 Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, ^jwhere I made my name dwell at first, and see ^kwhat I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you ^lpersistently you did not listen, and ^mwhen I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore ⁿI will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.

16 “As for you, ^odo not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the ^pcities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make ^qcakes for the ^rqueen of heaven. And they pour out ^sdrink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. 19 Is it I whom they provoke? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own shame? 20 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be ^tpoured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.”

21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, ^uand eat the flesh. 22 For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, ^vI did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and ^wI will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, ^xthat it may be well with you.’ 24 But ^ythey did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the ^zstubbornness of their evil hearts, and went ^abackward and not forward. 25 From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. 26 ^bYet ^cthey did not listen to me or incline their ear, but ^dstiffened their neck. ^eThey did worse than their fathers.

27 “So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.

Seven Woes to the Scribes and Pharisees

1 ^vThen Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on ^wMoses’ seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear,¹ and lay them on people’s shoulders, but ^xthey themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be ^yseen by others. For they make their ^zphylacteries broad and their ^afringes long, 6 and they love the ^bplace of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and ^cgreetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi² by others. 8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.³ 9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have ^done Father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. 11 ^eThe greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 ^fWhoever exalts himself will be humbled, and ^gwhoever humbles himself will be exalted.