Jeremiah 7
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,
2 “Stand at the gate of Yahweh's house and proclaim this word! Say, 'Hear the word of Yahweh, all you of Judah, you who enter these gates to worship Yahweh.
Hear you the word of the Lord, all Judea.
3 Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel, says this: Make your ways and practices good, and I will let you continue to live in this place.
Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Correct your ways and your devices, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
4 Do not entrust yourself to deceitful words and say, “Temple of Yahweh! Temple of Yahweh! Temple of Yahweh!”
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 For if you actually make your ways and practices good; if you completely execute justice between a man and his neighbor—
For if you thoroughly correct your ways and your practices, and do indeed execute judgment between a man and his neighbor;
6 if you do not exploit the one staying in the land, the orphan, or the widow and do not pour out innocent blood in this place, and do not walk after other gods to your own harm—
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 will let you stay in this place, in the land that I gave to your ancestors from ancient times and forever.
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 Behold! You are trusting in deceitful words that do not help you.
But whereas you have trusted in lying words, whereby you shall not be profited;
9 Do you steal, kill, and commit adultery? Do you swear deceitfully and offer incense to Baal and walk after other gods whom you have not known?
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 Then do you come and stand before me in this house that is called by my name and say, “We are saved,” so you can do all of these abominations?
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 Is this house, which carries my name, a den of bandits in your eyes? But behold, I have seen it—this is Yahweh's declaration.'
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 go to my place that was in Shiloh, where I allowed my name to stay there in the beginning, and look at what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.
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 So now, on account of your doing all of these practices—this is Yahweh's declaration—I spoke to you time and time again, but you did not listen. I summoned you, but you did not answer.
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 Therefore, what I did to Shiloh, I will also do to this house that is called by my name, the house in which you have trusted, this place that I gave to you and your ancestors.
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 For I will send you out from before me just as I had sent out all your brothers, 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 As for you, Jeremiah, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up a lamenting wail or say a prayer on their behalf, and do not petition me, for I will not 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 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities 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 are gathering wood and the fathers kindling the fire! The women are kneading dough to make cakes for the queen of the heavens and pour out drink offerings for other gods so that they will provoke me.
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 Are they truly provoking me?—this is Yahweh's declaration—is it not themselves whom they are provoking, so that shame is on them?
Do they provoke me to anger? says the Lord: do they not [provoke] themselves, that their faces may be ashamed?
20 Therefore the Lord Yahweh says this, 'See, my anger and wrath will gush out onto this place, on both man and beast, on the tree in the fields and the fruit on the ground. It will burn and never be extinguished.'
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 Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel says this, 'Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and the meat from them.
Thus says the Lord, Gather your whole burnt offerings with your meat-offerings, and eat flesh.
22 For when I brought your ancestors out from the land of Egypt, I did not require anything from them. I gave them no command about matters of 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 I only gave them this command, “Listen to my voice, and I will be your God and you will be my people. So walk in all the ways that I am commanding you, so that it may go well with 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 did not listen or pay attention. They lived by their own stubborn plans of their wicked hearts, so they went backwards, 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 Ever since the day when your ancestors went out from the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent every one of my servants, my prophets, to you. I persisted in sending them.
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 they did not listen to me. They paid no attention. Instead, they hardened their necks. They were more wicked than their ancestors.'
but they listened not to me, and their ear gave no heed; and they made their neck harder than their fathers.
27 So proclaim all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. Proclaim these things to them, but they will not answer you.
Therefore you shall speak this word to them;
28 Say to them: This is a nation that does not listen to the voice of Yahweh its God and does not receive discipline. Truth is destroyed and cut off from their mouths.
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 shave yourself, and throw away your hair. Sing a funeral song over the open places. For Yahweh has rejected and abandoned this generation in his rage.
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 sons of Judah have done evil in my eye—this is Yahweh's declaration—they have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, in order to defile it.
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 Then they built the high place of Topheth that is in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. They did this to burn their sons and daughters in fire—something that I did not command, nor did it enter my mind.
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 see, days are coming—this is Yahweh's declaration—when it will no longer be called Topheth or Valley of Ben Hinnom. It will be the Valley of Slaughter; they will bury bodies in Topheth until there is no room left.
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 corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the skies and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten 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 an end to the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the sound of the groom and the sound of the bride, for the land will become a desolation.”
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.
