Jeremiah 7
1 Yahweh gave me another message. He said to me,
The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying:
2 “Go to the entrance of my temple, and give this message to the people: You people of Judah who worship here, listen to this message from Yahweh!
Stand in the gate of the house of Jehovah, and proclaim these words, and say: —Hear the word of Jehovah, all ye of Judah, Who enter in at these gates to worship Jehovah!
3 The Commander of the armies of angels says to you, ['If you] stop doing evil things and start doing what is right, I will allow you to remain living in your land.'
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, And I will suffer you to dwell in this place!
4 [But some people] are repeatedly saying to you, ‘The temple of Yahweh is here, [so we will be safe]; [he will not allow us and the temple to be destroyed].’ But do not pay attention to what they say, because they are deceiving you.
Trust ye not in lying words, when they say, “The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, The temple of Jehovah are these.”
5 [I will act mercifully to you only] if you change your behavior and stop doing evil things, and if you [start to] act fairly/justly toward others,
Yet if ye will thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, And dispense justice between man and man,
6 and if you stop oppressing foreigners [who live in your country], and orphans and widows, and if you stop murdering people, and if you stop worshiping (foreign gods/idols). However, if you continue to do those things, you will be destroyed.
If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, And shed not innocent blood in this place, And go not after other gods to your own hurt,
7 If you do what I have told you, I will allow you to stay in this land that I promised to your ancestors that it would belong to them [and their descendants] forever.
Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, In the land which I gave to your fathers, For ever and ever.
8 [People are repeatedly] telling you, [‘The temple is here, so we are safe]’, and you are trusting/believing [that what they are saying is true], but it is a lie. [Those people are deceiving you, and what they say is] worthless.
Behold, ye trust in lying words without profit.
9 You think that [RHQ] you can steal things, murder people, commit adultery, tell lies in court, and worship Baal and all those other gods that you did not know about previously,
Ye steal, and murder, and commit adultery, And swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, And go after strange gods, which ye know not,
10 and then come here and stand in front of this temple, which is my temple, and say ‘Nothing bad will happen to us!’, while you continue to do all those abominable things.
And then come and stand before me in this house, Which is called by my name, And say, “We are delivered!” Whilst ye practise all these abominations.
11 Do you realize that you are causing this temple, which is my temple, to become like [MET] a den where bandits hide [RHQ]? Do you not know that I see [all the evil things that you people do there]?
Is this house, which is called by my name, Become a den for robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, saith Jehovah.
12 [Long ago] I put my Sacred Tent at Shiloh [city], to be a place where people would worship me [MTY]. Think about how I [destroyed it] because my people, the Israeli people, did [many] wicked things there.
But go now to my place, which was in Shiloh, Where I caused my name to dwell at the first, And see what I have done to it On account of the wickedness of my people Israel.
13 And while you were continually doing those wicked things, I told you about it many times, but you refused to listen. I called out to you, but you refused to answer [me].
And now because ye have done all these works, saith Jehovah, And I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, But ye hearkened not, And I have called to you, But ye answered not,
14 Therefore, just like I destroyed Shiloh, I will [now] destroy this temple that was built for people to worship me [MTY], this temple that you trust in, that is in this place that I gave to you and your ancestors.
Therefore will I do to the house which is called by my name, In which ye place your confidence, And to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, As I have done to Shiloh.
15 And I will expel you from this land and send you [to other countries] far away from me, just like I did to your relatives, the people of Israel.”
I will cast you out from my presence, As I have cast out all your brethren, The whole race of Ephraim.
16 [Yahweh said to me, “Jeremiah], do not pray for these people [any longer]. Do not cry for them or plead for [me to help] them, because I will not pay any attention to you.
And as for thee, pray not for this people, Nor lift up a cry or a prayer for them, Nor make intercession to me for them; For I will not hear thee.
17 Do you see [the wicked things] that they are doing in the streets of Jerusalem and in the [other] towns in Judah?
Seest thou not what they do In the cities of Judah, and the streets of Jerusalem?
18 The children gather firewood and their fathers use it to make fires [on the altars to burn sacrifices]. The women knead/make dough to make cakes to offer to [their goddess Astarte who is called] the Queen of Heaven. And [on their altars] they pour out offerings of wine to [their] other idols. All of those things cause me to become extremely angry!
The sons gather the wood, And the fathers kindle the fire, And the women knead dough, To make cakes for the queen of heaven, And to pour out libations to strange gods, That they may vex me.
19 But I am not [RHQ] the one whom they are hurting; they are really [RHQ] hurting themselves [by doing these things for which they should be] very ashamed!”
But do they vex me, saith Jehovah? Do they not rather vex themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?
20 So Yahweh the Lord says this: “Because I am extremely angry with [what happens at] this place, I will punish these people severely [MTY]; my being very angry will be [like] [MET] a fire that will not be extinguished, and I will destroy the people, [their] animals, [their] fruit trees, and [their] crops.”
Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold my anger and my fury shall be poured out on this place, Upon man and upon beast; Upon the trees of the field, And upon the fruit of the ground; It shall burn and not be quenched.
21 Therefore, this is what the Commander of the armies of angels says: “Take away [IRO] your offerings that you bring to burn completely on your altars and your [other] sacrifices; [don’t give them to me]; eat them [yourselves]!
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt-offerings to your sacrifices, And eat ye the flesh.
22 When I led your ancestors out of Egypt, it was not offerings to be completely burned on the altar or [other] sacrifices that I wanted from them.
For I spake not to your fathers, nor commanded them Concerning burnt-offerings and sacrifices, At the time when I brought them out of the land of Egypt;
23 What I told them was, ‘Obey me; [if you do that], I will be your God and you will be my people. If you do the things that I want you to do, everything will go well for you.’
But this command gave I to them: “Hearken,” said I, “to my voice, And I will be your God, And ye shall be my people. And walk ye in all the ways which I command you, That it may go well with you.”
24 But your ancestors would not pay any attention [DOU] to me. They continued to do [the evil things] that they wanted to do, everything that in their stubborn inner beings they desired to do. Instead of coming closer to me, they went further away from me.
But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, But walked in the devices and obstinacy of their evil heart, Turning their backs and not their faces toward me.
25 From the day that your ancestors left Egypt until now, I have continued to send my prophets to you.
From the day when your fathers came forth from the land of Egypt, Even to this day, I have also sent to you all my servants, the prophets, Daily rising early and sending.
26 But you, [my people], have not listened to me or paid attention to what I said; you have been stubborn, and you have done more sinful things than your ancestors did.”
But they have not hearkened to me, Nor have they inclined their ear; But they have hardened their neck, And acted more wickedly than their fathers.
27 [Then Yahweh said to me], “When you tell all this to my people, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer.
And when thou shalt speak all these things to them, They will not hearken to thee; And when thou shalt call to them, They will make thee no answer.
28 Say to them, ‘You people [of Judah] have not obeyed Yahweh, your God; you have not accepted it when he tried to correct you. No one among you is truthful; you do not say anything that is true; [you speak only lies].’
Therefore shalt thou say to them, This is the nation that hearkeneth not to the voice of Jehovah their God, And taketh no correction; Truth hath failed, and is cut off from their mouth.
29 [So, tell them to] cut off their hair [to show that they are mourning]; tell them to go up into the hills and sing a sad funeral song, because I have completely rejected [DOU] this generation [of people] who have made me angry.”
Cut off thy locks, O Jerusalem, and cast them away! Set up a lamentation upon the high place! For Jehovah hath rejected and forsaken the children Against which his wrath hath been kindled.
30 Yahweh says this: “The people of Judah have done many things that I say are evil. They have set up their disgusting idols in my temple, causing it to become an unacceptable [place to worship me].
For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith Jehovah, They have set their abominations in the house Which is called by my name, to pollute it.
31 They have built altars at Topheth in Ben-Hinnom Valley [outside Jerusalem], and they sacrifice their sons and daughters on those altars. I never commanded them to do that; I never even thought that anyone would do that.
They have built the high places of Tophet, Which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, To burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, Which I commanded not, Which even came not into my mind.
32 So they should beware! There will be a time when that place will no longer be called Topheth or the Hinnom Valley; instead, it will be called the Valley of Slaughter. There will be a huge number of people who will be buried there, with the result that there will be no space to bury more bodies.
Therefore behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, That it shall no more be called Tophet, Or the valley of the son of Hinnom, But the Valley of Slaughter; For they shall bury in Tophet till there be no room left.
33 The corpses of my people that are [not buried and are] left on the ground will be eaten by vultures and wild animals, and there will be no one to shoo/chase them away.
And the dead bodies of this people shall be for meat To the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth; And none shall scare them away.
34 There will be no one singing and laughing any more in the streets of Jerusalem; there will be no more joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides in Judah, because the land will be completely destroyed.”
And I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah, And 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 be desolate.
