Jeremiah 7:29-31

Expanded Bible

The Valley of Killing

²⁹ “‘Cut off your hair [^Cthe Hebrew phrase suggests a Nazirite vow and thus consecrated hair; Num. 6:5] and throw it away. Go up to the bare hilltop [3:2] and ·cry out [lament], because the Lord has rejected these people. He has turned his back on ·them, and in his anger will punish them [^Lthe generation that enrages him]. ³⁰ The ·people [descendants; sons] of Judah have done ·what I said was evil [^Levil in my eyes], says the Lord. They have set up their ·hateful [loathsome; abominable] idols in the ·place where I have chosen to be worshiped [^Lhouse that is called by my name] and have made it ·unclean [defiled; ^Cin a ritual sense]. ³¹ The people of Judah have built ·places of worship [^Lhigh places; ^Csites associated with pagan worship or inappropriate worship of God; Deut. 12] at Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom [2 Kin. 23:10–11]. There they burned their own sons and daughters as sacrifices, something I never commanded. It never even entered my ·mind [^Lheart; Lev. 18:21; Deut. 12:31; 18:10].