Jeremiah 7
7
Trusting in Lying Words
1The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2#Jer. 17:19; 26:2“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!’ ” 3Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: #Jer. 4:1; 18:11; 26:13“Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4#Jer. 7:8; Mic. 3:11Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.’
5“For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly #1 Kin. 6:12; Jer. 21:12; 22:3execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, 6if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, #Deut. 6:14, 15; Jer. 13:10or walk after other gods to your hurt, 7#Deut. 4:40then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in #Jer. 3:18the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.
8“Behold, you trust in #Jer. 5:31; 14:13, 14lying words that cannot profit. 9#1 Kin. 18:21; Hos. 4:1, 2; Zeph. 1:5Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and #Ex. 20:3; Jer. 7:6; 19:4walk after other gods whom you do not know, 10#Ezek. 23:39and then come and stand before Me in this house #Jer. 7:11, 14; 32:34; 34:15which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? 11Has #Is. 56:7this house, which is called by My name, become a #Matt. 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the Lord.
12“But go now to #Josh. 18:1; Judg. 18:31My place which was in Shiloh, #Deut. 12:11where I set My name at the first, and see #1 Sam. 4:10; Ps. 78:60; Jer. 26:6what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. 13And now, because you have done all these works,” says the Lord, “and I spoke to you, #2 Chr. 36:15; Jer. 11:7rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I #Prov. 1:24; Is. 65:12; 66:4called you, but you did not answer, 14therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to #1 Sam. 4:10, 11; Ps. 78:60; Jer. 26:6, 9Shiloh. 15And I will cast you out of My sight, #2 Kin. 17:23as I have cast out all your brethren—#Ps. 78:67; Hos. 7:13; 9:13; 12:1the whole posterity of Ephraim.
16“Therefore #Ex. 32:10; Deut. 9:14; Jer. 11:14do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; #Jer. 15:1for I will not hear you. 17Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18#Jer. 44:17The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they #Jer. 19:13pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger. 19#Deut. 32:16, 21Do they provoke Me to anger?” says the Lord. “Do they not provoke themselves, to the shame of their own faces?”
20Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place—on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and not be quenched.”
21Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: #Is. 1:11; Jer. 6:20; Hos. 8:13; Amos 5:21, 22“Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. 22#1 Sam. 15:22; Ps. 51:16; (Hos. 6:6)For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. 23But this is what I commanded them, saying, #Ex. 15:26; 16:32; Deut. 6:3‘Obey My voice, and #(Ex. 19:5, 6); Lev. 26:12; (Jer. 11:4; 13:11)I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ 24#Ps. 81:11; Jer. 11:8Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but #Deut. 29:19; Jer. 9:14followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and #Jer. 32:33went backward and not forward. 25Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even #2 Chr. 36:15; Jer. 25:4; 29:19; Mark 12:1–10; Luke 11:47–49sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. 26#Jer. 11:8Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but #Neh. 9:17stiffened their neck. #Jer. 16:12; Matt. 23:32They did worse than their fathers.
27“Therefore #Jer. 1:7; 26:2; 37:14, 15; 43:1–4; Ezek. 2:7you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.
Judgment on Obscene Religion
28“So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord their God #Jer. 5:3nor receive correction. #Jer. 9:3Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. 29#Job 1:20; Is. 15:2; Jer. 48:37; Mic. 1:16Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’ 30For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the Lord. #2 Kin. 21:4; 2 Chr. 33:3–5, 7; Jer. 32:34, 35; Ezek. 7:20; Dan. 9:27; 11:31“They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to pollute it. 31And they have built the #2 Kin. 23:10; Jer. 19:5; 32:35high places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to #Lev. 18:21; 2 Kin. 17:17; Ps. 106:38burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, #Deut. 17:3which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.
32“Therefore behold, #Jer. 19:6the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when it will no more be called Tophet, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; #2 Kin. 23:10; Jer. 19:11for they will bury in Tophet until there is no room. 33The #Jer. 9:22; 19:11; Ezek. 6:5corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. And no one will frighten them away. 34Then I will cause to #Is. 24:7, 8; Jer. 16:9; 25:10; Ezek. 26:13; Hos. 2:11; Rev. 18:23cease 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 #Lev. 26:33; Is. 1:7; Jer. 4:27the land shall be desolate.
Currently Selected:
Jeremiah 7: NKJV
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 7
7
Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon
1This is the word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah: 2“Stand at the gate of the Temple. Preach this message there:
“‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of the nation of Judah! All you who come through these gates to worship the Lord, listen to this message! 3This is what the Lord of heaven’s armies, the God of Israel, says: Change your lives and do what is right! If you do, I will let you live in this place. 4Don’t trust the lies that some people say! They say, “This is the Temple of the Lord. This is the Temple of the Lord. This is the Temple of the Lord!” 5You must change your lives and do what is right. You must be fair to each other. 6You must not be hard on the strangers, the orphans and widows. Don’t kill innocent people in this place! Don’t follow other gods, or they will ruin your lives. 7If you do these things, I will let you live in this land. This is the land I gave to your ancestors to keep forever.
8“‘But look! You are trusting lies. Such trust is useless. 9Will you steal and murder? Will you be guilty of adultery? Will you falsely accuse other people? Will you worship the false god Baal? And will you follow other gods you have not known? 10If you do that, do you think you can come before me? Can you stand in this place where I have chosen to be worshiped? Do you think you can say, “We are safe!” Are you safe to do all these hated things? 11This is the place where I have chosen to be worshiped. Is it nothing more to you than a hideout for robbers? I have been watching you, says the Lord!
12“‘You people of Judah, go now to the town of Shiloh. It was there that I first made a place to be worshiped. Go there and see what I did because of the evil things they had done. 13You people of Israel were doing all these evil things, says the Lord. I spoke to you again and again. But you did not listen to me. I called you, but you did not answer. 14So I will destroy the place where I have chosen to be worshiped in Jerusalem. You trust in that place. I gave it to you and your ancestors. But I will destroy it just as I destroyed Shiloh. 15I will push you away from me. I will do it just as I pushed away your brothers, the people of Israel!’
16“As for you, Jeremiah, don’t pray for these people. Don’t cry out for them or ask anything for them. Don’t beg me to help them. I will not listen to you. 17Don’t you see what they are doing in the towns of Judah? Don’t you see what they are doing in the streets of Jerusalem? 18This is what the people of Judah are doing: The children gather wood. The fathers use the wood to make a fire. The women make the dough for cakes of bread. And they offer them to the Queen Goddess. They pour out drink offerings to worship other gods. They do this to make me angry. 19But I am not the one the people of Judah are really hurting, says the Lord. They are only hurting themselves. They are bringing shame upon themselves.
20“‘So this is what the Lord says: I will pour out my anger on this place. I will pour it out on man and animal. I will pour out my anger on the trees in the field. And I will pour it out on the crops in the ground. My anger will be like a hot fire. And no one will be able to put it out.
Obedience Is More than Sacrifice
21“‘This is what the Lord of heaven’s armies, the God of Israel, says: Go and offer as many burnt offerings and sacrifices as you want! Eat the meat of those sacrifices yourselves! 22I brought your ancestors out of Egypt. I spoke to them. But I did not give them commands only about burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23I also gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Do all that I command, and good things will happen to you. 24But your ancestors did not listen or pay attention to me. They were stubborn and did whatever their evil hearts wanted. They went backward, not forward. 25Since the day your ancestors left Egypt, I have sent you my servants, the prophets. I sent them to you again and again. 26But your ancestors did not listen or pay attention to me. They were very stubborn. And they did more evil than their ancestors.’
27“Jeremiah, you will tell these things to the people of Judah. But they will not listen to you! You will call to them, but they will not answer you. 28So say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God. These people do nothing when I correct them. They do not tell the truth. It has disappeared from their lips.
The Valley of Killing
29“‘Cut off your hair and throw it away. Go up to the bare hilltop and cry. Do it because I, the Lord, have rejected these people. I have turned my back on them. And in my anger I will punish them! 30The people of Judah have done what I said was evil, says the Lord. They have set up their hated idols in the place where I have chosen to be worshiped. They have made it unclean! 31The people of Judah have built places of worship at Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. There the people offered their own sons and daughters as sacrifices. This is something I never commanded. It never even entered my mind! 32So, I warn you. The days are coming, says the Lord, when people will not call this place Topheth. They will not call it the Valley of Ben Hinnom anymore. They will call it the Valley of Killing. They will bury dead people in Topheth until there is no room to bury anyone else! 33Then the bodies of the dead will lie on top of the ground. They will become food for the birds of the sky. Wild animals will eat the bodies. There will be no one left alive to chase the birds or animals away. 34I will end the happy sounds of the bride and bridegroom. There will be no happy sounds in Judah or in the streets of Jerusalem. The land will become an empty desert!
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Copyright © 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.