Jeremiah 7

1 This is the Lord's message that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:

The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:

2 Go and stand in the entrance to the Lord's Temple, and deliver this message: Listen to what Lord has to say, all of you from Judah who are coming in through these gates to worship the Lord.

Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord, and proclaim there this word, and say: Hear ye the word of the Lord, all ye men of Juda, that enter in at these gates, to adore the Lord.

3 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says: Change your ways and do what's right, and I'll let you go on living here.

Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Make your ways and your doings good: and I will dwell with you in this place.

4 Don't believe in those who try and deceive you by repeating, “The Temple of the Lord is here, the Temple of the Lord is here, the Temple of the Lord is here.”

Trust not in lying words, saying: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, it is the temple of the Lord.

5 If you sincerely change your ways and do what's right, if you treat each other fairly,

For if you will order well your ways, and your doings: if you will execute judgement between a man and his neighbor,

6 if you stop mistreating foreigners and orphans and widows, and if you stop murdering innocent people and stop hurting yourselves by worshiping,

If you opress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, and walk not after strange gods to your own hurt,

7 then I'll let you go on living here in the country that I gave to your forefathers forever and ever.

I will dwell with you in this place: in the land, which I gave to your fathers from the beginning and for evermore.

8 But look at you! You go on believing in these deceptions, these worthless words.

Behold you put your trust in lying words, which shall not profit you:

9 Are you really going to continue stealing, murdering, committing adultery, and lying, burning incense to Baal, and worshiping other gods that you know nothing about,

To steal, to murder, to commit adultery, to swear falsely, to offer to Baalim, and to go after strange gods, which you know not.

10 and then come and stand before me in my own Temple and say, “We're safe, so we can continue doing all these offensive things”?

And you have come, and stood before me in this house, in which my name is called upon, and have said: We are delivered, because we have done all these abominations.

11 Do you see this house, my own Temple, as a den of thieves? Well, that's what it looks like to me too, declares the Lord.

Is this house then, in which my name hath been called upon, in your eyes become a den of robbers? I, I am he: I have seen it, saith the Lord.

12 So why don't you go to Shiloh where I first made myself a place for me to live with you, and see what I did to it because of the evil my people Israel did?

Go ye to my place in Silo, where my name dwelt from the beginning: and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel:

13 I've warned you time and again about all these things you've done but you've refused to listen, declares the Lord. I've called out to you but you didn't want to answer me.

And now, because you have done all these works, saith the Lord: and I have spoken to you rising up early, and speaking, and you have not heard: and I have called you, and you have not answered:

14 So now I'm going to do to my Temple, what I did to Shiloh. This is the Temple your put your faith in, the place I gave to you and your forefathers.

I will do to this house, in which my name is called upon, and in which you trust, and to the places which I have given you and your fathers, as I did to Silo.

15 I will throw you out of my presence, just as I expelled all your Israelite relatives, all the descendants of Ephraim.

And I will cast you away from before my face, as I have cast away all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim.

16 You, Jeremiah, are not to pray for these people. Don't cry out to me in prayer for them, don't plead with me on their behalf, because I won't listen to you.

Therefore, do not thou pray for this people, nor take to thee praise and supplication for them: and do not withstand me: for I will not hear thee.

17 Can't you see how they're behaving in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem?

18 The children collect the firewood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods to make me angry and hurt.

The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to offer libations to strange gods, and to provoke me to anger.

19 But is it really me they're hurting? declares the Lord. Aren't they really hurting themselves and bringing shame on themselves?

Do they provoke me to anger, saith the Lord? Is it not themselves, to the confusion of their contenance?

20 So this is what the Lord God says: Watch! My furious anger and will be poured out on this country, on people and animals, on the orchards and the crops in the field. It will burn and nobody will be able to put it out.

Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold my wrath and my indignation was enkindled against this place, upon men and upon beasts, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruits of the land, and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

21 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You can add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat all the meat yourselves!

Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat ye the flesh.

22 When I led your forefathers out of Egypt I didn't just give them instructions about burnt offerings and sacrifices,

For I spoke not to your fathers, and I commanded them not, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning the matter of burnt offerings and sacrifices.

23 This is the commandment I gave them: Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Follow everything I have commanded you to do, so that all will go well for you.

But this thing I commanded them, saying: Hearken to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people: and walk ye in all the way that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.

24 But they refused to listen or pay attention. Instead they followed the desires of their own stubborn and evil thinking, so they ended up going backward and not forward.

But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear: but walked in their own will, and in the perversity of their wicked heart: and went backward and not forward,

25 From the time your forefathers left Egypt until now, I have sent you time after time my servants the prophets.

From the day that their fathers came out of the land of Egypt, even to this day. And I have sent to you all my servants the prophets from day to day, rising up early and sending.

26 But you refused to listen or pay them attention. Instead, you became more stubborn and rebellious than your forefathers!

And they have not hearkened to me: nor inclined their ear: but have hardened their neck, and have done worse than their fathers.

27 When you tell them all this, they won't listen to you. When you call out to them, they won't answer.

And thou shalt speak to them all these words, but they will not hearken to thee: and thou shalt call them, but they will not answer thee.

28 So you have to tell them, “This is the nation that refused to listen to what the Lord their God said, and would not accept the Lord's discipline. Truth has died out; people don't even talk about it.

And thou shalt say to them: This is a nation which hath not hearkened to the voice of the Lord their God, nor received instruction: Faith is lost, and is carried away out of their mouth.

29 Cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a song of mourning on the bare hills, for the Lord has rejected and abandoned the generation who made him angry.”

Cut off thy hair, and cast it away: and take up a lamentation on high: for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath,

30 For the people of Judah have done what is evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have placed their offensive idols in my own Temple, making it unclean.

Because the children of Juda have done evil in my eyes, saith the Lord. They have set their abominations in the house in which my name is called upon, to pollute it;

31 They have built pagan shrines at Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom so they could sacrifice their sons and daughters by burning them in the fire. This is something I never commanded. I never even thought of such a thing!

And they have built the high places of Topeth, which is in the valley of the son of Ennom, to burn their sons, and their daughters in the fire: which I commanded not, nor thought on in my heart.

32 So watch out! The time is coming, declares the Lord, when instead of Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom this place will be called the Valley of Killing. People will bury their dead in Topheth until it's full.

Therefore behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and it shall no more be called Topeth, nor the valley of the son of Ennom: but the valley of slaughter, and they shall bury in Topeth, because there is no place.

33 The dead bodies of these people will be food for birds of prey and wild animals, and there won't be anyone to scare them away.

And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be non to drive them away.

34 I will put a stop to the cheerful sounds of celebration and the happy voices of the bride and bridegroom from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the country will be turned into a wasteland.

And I will cause to cease out of the cities of Juda, and out of the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.