Jeremiah 7
1 Yahweh gave me another message. He said to me,
The word that came unto Jeremiah, from Yahweh 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 thou in the gate of the house of Yahweh, and thou shalt proclaim there this word, —and shalt say—Hear ye the word of Yahweh all Judah ye who are entering in at these gates, to bow down unto Yahweh:
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 Yahweh of hosts God of Israel, Amend your ways, and your doings, —That I may cause 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.
Do not, on your part trust in false words, saying, —The temple of Yahweh The temple of Yahweh, The temple of Yahweh they are!
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,
But, if ye shall thoroughly amend, your ways, and your doings, —Shall thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbour;
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.
The sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, shall not oppress, And innocent blood, shall not shed in this place, —And after other gods, shall not walk 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, —From one age even unto another,
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.
Lo! ye, on your part, are trusting in false words, —To no 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,
Are ye to steal, commit murder and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, —and walk after other gods whom ye have not known;
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 will ye then come in and stand before me in this house whereon my Name hath been called, and say, —We have set ourselves free, —for the purpose of committing 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]?
A den of robbers, hath this house on which my Name hath been called become in your own eyes? I, also, —lo! I have seen it Declareth Yahweh.
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.
For go I pray you, unto my place which was in Shiloh, Where I made my Name to dwell, at first, —And see what I did to it, because 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].
Now, therefore—Because ye have done all these deeds Declareth Yahweh, —And though I spake unto you betimes speaking, Yet ye hearkened not, And though I cried unto you Yet 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 Whereon my Name hath been called Wherein, ye, are trusting, Even to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, —Just as I did unto 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.”
And will cast you out from before me, —Just as I have cast out All your brethren, All the seed 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.
Thou, therefore—Do not pray for this people Neither lift up for them cry or prayer Neither intercede with me, —For I am not going to 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?
Dost thou not see what, they, are doing In the cities of Judah, —and In 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 children, gather wood, and The fathers, kindle the fire, and The women, knead dough, —To make sacrificial cakes to the queen of the heavens, And to pour out drink-offerings to other gods, Provoking me to anger!
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!”
Is it me, they are provoking? Enquireth Yahweh, —Is it not themselves, —unto the shame 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.”
Wherefore, Thus, saith My Lord Yahweh—Lo! mine anger and mine indignation, are about to be poured out upon this place, On man and on beast, and On the tree of the field and On the fruit of the ground, —And it shall burn and shall 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 Yahweh of hosts God of Israel, —Your ascending-offerings, add ye unto your peace-offerings and eat ye 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 bade not your fathers Neither commanded I them, In the day I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, —Concerning the matter of ascending-offering and peace-offering;
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 thing, I commanded them—saying, Hearken ye unto my voice, So will I become unto you—a God, And, ye, shall become unto me—a people, —Ye shall therefore walk in all the way that I may command you, To the end it may be 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.
Yet they hearkened not Neither inclined their ear, But walked, In the counsels—In the stubbornness of their own wicked heart; And went backward, and not forward.
25 From the day that your ancestors left Egypt until now, I have continued to send my prophets to you.
Ever since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt, until this day, Have I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, Daily, betimes, sending them;
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.”
Yet they hearkened not unto me, Neither inclined their ear, —But stiffened their neck, They did 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.
Therefore shalt thou speak unto them all these words, Though they do not hearken unto thee, —And thou shalt cry aloud unto them Though they do not answer thee; —
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].’
But thou shalt say unto them, —This, is the nation that hearkened not unto the voice of Yahweh its God, Neither accepted they correction, —Perished is fidelity, And is cut off out of 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 thou off thy crown of hair [O Jerusalem], and cast it away, And lift thou up on the bare heights, a dirge, —For Yahweh hath rejected and cast out the generation with which he was wroth.
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 sons of Judah, have done, that which was wicked in mine eyes, Declareth Yahweh, —They have set their abominations in the house whereon my Name hath been called to defile 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.
And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, To burn up their sons and their daughters in the fire, —Which I commanded not, Neither came it up on my heart,
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, lo! days are coming, Declareth Yahweh, When it shall not be called any more—The Topheth, nor The valley of Ben-hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter, —And they shall bury in Topheth, for want of place;
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 become food, For the bird of the heavens, and For the beast of the earth, —And there shall be none to drive 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.”
So will I cause to cease, From the cities of Judah, and, From 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, a desolation, shall the land become.
