Jeremiah returns from Tophet at the Lord’s direction and comes to the outer court of the temple where the common people gathered and all could hear his message. He is told to give the same warning again.
This intransigence does not develop in a moment. It comes about through prolonged refusal to pay attention to conscience. At first there is some fear about not listening. The consequences seem all too real. But with repetition, the voice of conscience fades, and warning seems less real. There is a fatal state of mind in which a person convinces themselves that warnings they have heard are never going to be delivered. The child, for instance, thinks it knows the parent, and the parent has said these things many times before, but never acted. But there comes a moment when with shock and surprise the child sees that the parent is going to act this time, and there has been a fatal miscalculation. When the punishment comes it is going to take into account all those failures to respond.