Jeremiah 7–8

7TH CHAPTER

Judah Trusts the Wrong Things

¹The Lord spoke his word to Jeremiah. He said, ²“Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house, and announce from there this message: ‘Listen to the Lord’s word, all you people of Judah who go through these gates to worship the Lord. ³This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Change the way you live and act, and I will let you live in this place. ⁴Do not trust the words of this saying, “This is the Lord’s temple, the Lord’s temple, the Lord’s temple!” It’s a lie. 

⁵“ ‘Suppose you really change the way you live and act and you really treat each other fairly. ⁶Suppose you do not oppress foreigners, orphans, and widows, or kill anyone in this place. And suppose you do not follow other gods that lead you to your own destruction. ⁷Then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave permanently to your ancestors long ago. 

⁸“ ‘You are trusting the words of a saying. It’s a lie that cannot help you. ⁹You steal, murder, commit adultery, lie when you take oaths, burn incense as an offering to Baal, and run after other gods that you do not know. ¹⁰Then you stand in my presence in the house that is called by my name. You think that you’re safe to do all these disgusting things. ¹¹The house that is called by my name has become a gathering place for thieves. I have seen what you are doing,’ ” declares the Lord. 

¹²“ ‘But go to my place that was at Shiloh, where I first made a dwelling place for my name. See what I did to Shiloh because of the evil done by my people Israel. ¹³You have done the same things the people did at Shiloh,’ ” declares the Lord. “ ‘Although I spoke to you again and again, you did not listen. When I called you, you did not answer. ¹⁴So what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that is called by my name. This is the place I gave to you and to your ancestors, the place where you feel so safe. ¹⁵I will force you out of my sight as I forced out all your relatives, all of Ephraim’s descendants.’ 

¹⁶“Jeremiah, don’t pray for these people. Don’t cry or pray for them. Don’t plead with me, because I will not listen to you. ¹⁷Don’t you see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸Children gather wood, fathers light fires, and women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven. They pour out wine offerings to other gods in order to make me furious. ¹⁹They aren’t really provoking me,” declares the Lord. “But they are ⸤harming⸥ themselves to their own shame. 

²⁰“This is what the Almighty Lord says: My anger and fury will be poured out on this place, on humans and animals, and on trees and crops. My anger and fury will burn and not be put out. 

²¹“This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the meat. ²²When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I did not tell them anything about burnt offerings and sacrifices. ²³But I did tell them this, ‘Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Live the way I told you to live so that things will go well for you.’ ²⁴But they didn’t obey me or pay attention to me. They followed their own plans and their stubborn, evil ways. They went backward and not forward. ²⁵From the time that your ancestors left Egypt until now, I have sent all my servants the prophets to you again and again. ²⁶But you didn’t obey me or pay attention to me. You became impossible to deal with, and you were worse than your ancestors. 

²⁷“Jeremiah, you will say all these things to them, but they will not obey you. You will call to them, but they will not respond to you. ²⁸You will say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the Lord their God. They did not accept discipline. Truth has disappeared and vanished from their lips.’ 

²⁹“Cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a song of mourning on the bare hills, because in his anger the Lord has rejected and abandoned the people of this generation. ³⁰The people of Judah have done what I consider evil,” declares the Lord. “They set up their detestable idols in the house that is called by my name. They have made it unclean.^a31They have built worship sites at Topheth in the valley of Ben Hinnom in order to burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices. I did not ask for this. It never entered my mind. 

³²“That is why the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when that place will no longer be known as Topheth or the valley of Ben Hinnom. Instead, it will be known as Slaughter Valley. They will bury ⸤people⸥ at Topheth because no other place will be left. ³³The dead bodies of these people will become food for birds and animals, and no one will be there to frighten them away. ³⁴In the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, I will banish the sounds of joy and happiness and the sounds of brides and grooms, because the land will be a wasteland.” 

8TH CHAPTER

¹The Lord declares, “At that time the bones of the kings and the leaders of Judah, the bones of the priests and the prophets, and the bones of the others who lived in Jerusalem will be taken out of their graves. ²They will be spread out and exposed to the sun, the moon, and all the stars in the sky. These are the things that they had loved, served, gone after, sought, and worshiped. Their bones will not be gathered or buried, but they will become manure on the ground. 

³“Then the few who remain from these wicked people will want to die rather than live where I will scatter them,” declares the Lord of Armies. 

The Lord’s Judgment on Judah’s False Religion

⁴“Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: 

When someone falls, he gets back up. 

When someone turns away from me, he returns. 

⁵The people of Jerusalem turned away from me without ever returning. 

They still cling to deceit. 

They refuse to return. 

⁶I have paid attention and listened, 

but they weren’t honest. 

They don’t turn away from their wickedness and ask, 

“What have we done?” 

They go their own ways like horses charging into battle. 

⁷Even storks know when it’s time to return. 

Mourning doves, swallows, and cranes know 

when it’s time to migrate. 

But my people don’t know 

that I, the Lord, am urging them to return. 

⁸“ ‘How can you say that you are wise 

and that you have the Lord’s teachings? 

The scribes have used their pens to turn these teachings into lies. 

⁹Wise people are put to shame, confused, and trapped. 

They have rejected the Lord’s word. 

They don’t really have any wisdom. 

¹⁰That is why I will give their wives to other men 

and their fields to new owners. 

All of them, from the least important to the most important, 

are eager to make money dishonestly. 

All of them, from prophets to priests, act deceitfully. 

¹¹They treat my dear people’s wounds 

as though they were not serious, saying, 

“Everything is alright! Everything is alright!” 

But it’s not alright. 

¹²Are they ashamed that they do disgusting things? 

No, they’re not ashamed. 

They don’t even know how to blush. 

So they will die with those who die. 

They will be brought down when I punish them,’ ” says the Lord. 

¹³“ ‘I would have gathered their harvest,’ ” declares the Lord, 

“ ‘but there are no grapes on the vine. 

There are no figs on the tree, 

and the leaves have dried up. 

What I have given them will be taken away.’ ” 

¹⁴Why are we just sitting here? Let’s get up! 

Let’s go into the fortified cities and die there. 

The Lord our God has condemned us to die. 

He has given us poison to drink 

because we have sinned against the Lord. 

¹⁵We hoped for peace, but nothing good has happened. 

We hoped for a time of healing, but there’s only terror. 

¹⁶The snorting of horses can be heard from Dan. 

The neighing of stallions makes the whole land tremble. 

They are coming to devour the land and everything in it, 

the city and its people. 

¹⁷“I am going to send snakes among you, 

vipers that can’t be charmed. 

They will bite you,” declares the Lord. 

Jeremiah’s Grief over His People’s Punishment

¹⁸Sorrow has overwhelmed me. 

I am sick at heart! 

¹⁹The cry from my dear people comes from a distant land: 

“Isn’t the Lord in Zion? 

Isn’t Zion’s king still there?” 

They make me furious with their idols, with their foreign gods. 

²⁰The harvest is past, 

the summer has ended, 

and we haven’t been saved. 

²¹I am crushed because my dear people have been crushed. 

I mourn; terror grips me. 

²²Isn’t there medicine in Gilead? 

Aren’t there doctors there? 

Then why hasn’t the health of my dear people been restored?