Jeremiah 7

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

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.

Hear you the word of the Lord, all Judea.

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 says the Lord God of Israel, Correct your ways and your devices, and I will cause you to dwell 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 yourselves with lying words, for they shall not profit you at all, saying, It is the temple of the Lord, 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 thoroughly correct your ways and your practices, and do indeed execute judgment 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,

and oppress not the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, and go not after strange gods to your hurt:

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

then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers of old and for ever.

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

But whereas you have trusted in lying words, whereby you shall not be profited;

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,

and you murder, and commit adultery, and steal, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and are gone after strange gods whom 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”?

so that it is evil with you; yet have you come, and stood before me in the house, whereon my name is called, and you have said, We have refrained from doing 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 my house, whereon my name is called, a den of robbers in your eyes? And, behold, I have seen [it], says 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?

For go you to my place with is in Selo, where I caused my name to dwell before, and see what I did to it because of 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 deeds, and I spoke to you, but you listened not to me; and I called you, but you answered not;

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.

therefore I also will do to the house whereon my name is called, wherein you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Selo.

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 out of my sight, as I cast away your brethren, all the 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 pray not you for this people, and intercede not for them to be pitied, yes, pray not, and approach me not for them: for I will not listen [to you].

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

Seest you 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.

Their children gather wood, and their fathers kindle a fire, and their women knead dough, to make cakes to the host of heaven; and they have poured out drink-offerings to strange gods, that they might 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? says the Lord: do they not [provoke] themselves, that their faces may be ashamed?

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 says the Lord; Behold, my anger and wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and upon the men, and upon the cattle, and upon every tree of their field, and upon the fruits of the land; and it shall burn, and 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 says the Lord, Gather your whole burnt offerings with your meat-offerings, and eat 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 commanded them not in the day wherein I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, concerning whole burnt offerings and sacrifice:

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 I commanded them this thing, saying, Hear you my voice, and I will be to you a God, and you shall be to me a people: and walk you in all my ways which I shall command 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 listened not to me, and their ear gave no heed, but they walked in the imaginations of their evil 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 went forth out of the land of Egypt, even until this day. And I sent to you all my servants, the prophets, by day and early in the morning: yes, I sent [them],

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

but they listened not to me, and their ear gave no heed; and they made their neck harder 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.

Therefore you shall speak this word to them;

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.

This is the nation which has not listened to the voice of the Lord, nor received correction: truth has failed from 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 your hair, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on your lips; for the Lord has reprobated and rejected the generation that does these things.

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.

For the children of Juda have wrought evil before me, says the Lord; they have set their abominations in the house on which my name is called, to defile 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 altar of Taphes, which is in the valley of the son of Ennom, to burn their sons and their daughters with fire; which I did not command them [to do], neither did I design it 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 come, says the Lord, when they shall no more say, The altar of Taphes, and the valley of the son of Ennom, but, The valley of the slain; and they shall bury in Taphes, for lack of room.

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 dead bodies of this people shall be for food to the birds of the sky, and to the wild beasts of the earth; and there shall be none 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 destroy out of the cities of Juda, and the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of them that make merry, and the voice of them that rejoice, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride; for the whole land shall become a desolation.