Jeremiah 7

FALSE TRUST IN THE TEMPLE

7This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²“Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord^e and there call out this word: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the Lord.

³“ ‘This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Correct your ways and your actions,^f and I will allow you to live in this place. ⁴Do not trust deceitful words, chanting, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.” ⁵Instead, if you really correct your ways and your actions, if you act justly toward one another,^{Cg 6}if you no longer oppress the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow^h and no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods, bringing harm on yourselves, ⁷I will allow you to live in this place, the land I gave to your ancestorsⁱ long ago and forever. ⁸But look, you keep trusting in deceitful words that cannot help.

⁹“ ‘Do you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known?^{j 10}Then do you come and stand before me in this house^k that bears my name and say, “We are rescued, so we can continue doing all these detestable acts”? ¹¹Has this house, which bears my name, become a den of robbers^l in your view? Yes, I too have seen it.^m

This is the Lord’s declaration.

SHILOH AS A WARNING

¹²“ ‘But return to my place that was at Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first.ⁿ See what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. ¹³Now, because you have done all these things—this is the Lord’s declaration—and because I have spoken to you time and time again^A but you wouldn’t listen,^o and I have called to you, but you wouldn’t answer,^{p 14}what I did to Shiloh I will do to the house that bears my name,^q the house in which you trust, the place that I gave you and your ancestors. ¹⁵I will banish you from my presence, just as I banished all of your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.’^r

DO NOT PRAY FOR JUDAH

¹⁶“As for you, do not pray for these people.^s Do not offer a cry or a prayer on their behalf, and do not beg me,^t for I will not listen to you.^{u 17}Don’t you see how they behave in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven,^Bv and they pour out drink offerings to other gods so that they provoke me to anger. ¹⁹But are they really provoking me?”^w This is the Lord’s declaration. “Isn’t it they themselves being provoked to disgrace?”

²⁰Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “Look, my anger—my burning wrath—is about to be poured out on this place,^x on people and animals, on the tree of the field, and on the produce of the land. My wrath will burn and not be quenched.”^y

OBEDIENCE OVER SACRIFICE

²¹This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves,^{z 22}for when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them^aa or command them concerning burnt offering and sacrifice. ²³However, I did give them this command: ‘Obey me, and then I will be your God, and you will be my people. Follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you.’^{ab 24}Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention^ac but followed their own advice and their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward.^{ad 25}Since the day your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until today, I have sent all my servants the prophets^ae to you time and time again.^{Caf 26}However, my people wouldn’t listen to me or pay attention but became obstinate;^ag they did more evil than their ancestors.^ah

A LAMENT FOR DISOBEDIENT JUDAH

²⁷“When you speak all these things to them, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer you. ²⁸Therefore, declare to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the Lord their God and would not accept discipline. Truth^D has perished—it has disappeared from their mouths. ²⁹Cut off the hair of your sacred vow^Ea and throw it away. Raise up a dirge on the barren heights,^b for the Lord has rejected and abandoned the generation under his wrath.’^c

³⁰“For the Judeans have done what is evil in my sight.” This is the Lord’s declaration. “They have set up their abhorrent things^d in the house that bears my name in order to defile it.^{e 31}They have built the high places of Topheth^Af in Ben Hinnom Valley^Bg in order to burn their sons and daughters in the fire,^h a thing I did not command; I never entertained the thought.

³²“Therefore, look, the days are coming”ⁱ—the Lord’s declaration—“when this place will no longer be called Topheth and Ben Hinnom Valley, but Slaughter Valley.^j Topheth will become a cemetery,^C because there will be no other burial place. ³³The corpses of these people will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land, with no one to scare them away.^{k 34}I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and gladness and the voices of the groom and the bride,^l for the land will become a desolate waste.^m