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Haftara Tzav

Jeremiah 7.21-8.3, 9:22-23

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, eat the flesh. For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices; but this command I gave them: “Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. Walk in all the way I command you, that it may be well with you.”

But they did not obey, or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil heart. They went backward, not forward. From that day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I sent you My servants, the prophets, from morning until night.

Yet they wouldn’t listen to Me, or incline their ear, but stiffened their necks. They did worse than their fathers.

Therefor you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not respond. Therefore you shall say to them: “This is the nation that did not obey the voice of God their Lord, and did not accept correction, Faithfulness has perished; it is cut off from their mouths.”

Cut off your hair, cast it away. Weep upon the high hills; for God has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.

For the people of Judah have sinned in My sight, says God. They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, which I did not command them; neither would it come into My mind. Therefore, behold, days are coming, says God, when it will no longer be called Topheth, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter; for they shall bury in Topheth, because there is no room. And all the carcasses of this people will be food for the birds and animals, and no one will scare them away.  I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah, from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall lie in desolation.

At that time, says God, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of the princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their graves, They shall spread before the sun, the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they walked after, and which they have sought and worshiped.  They shall not be gathered and buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of the earth. Death shall be preferred to life by those who remain of this evil family. in all places which I have driven them, says the Lord of hosts.

Thus says God: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the mighty man his might, nor the rich man his riches; But let the one who glories; glory  in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am God who exercises mercy, justice and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says God.