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:
Jeremiah 7: ICB
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.
Yirmeyah 7
7
1The Devar that came to Yirmeyah from Hashem, saying,
2Stand at the Sha'ar Beis Hashem, and preach there this word, and say, Hear the Devar Hashem, all ye of Yehudah, that enter in at these She'arim (Gates) l'hishta'chavot (to worship, to prostrate before) Hashem.
3Thus saith Hashem Tzva'os, Elohei Yisroel, Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will cause you to dwell in makom hazeh (this place).
4Trust ye not in divrei hasheker (lying words, words of falsehood), saying, This is the Heikhal Hashem, the Heikhal Hashem, the Heikhal Hashem.
5For if ye throughly amend your ways and your deeds; if ye throughly dispense mishpat between an ish and his re'a (neighbor);
6If ye oppress not the ger, the yatom, and the almanah, and shed not dahm naki (innocent blood) in this place, neither walk after elohim acherim to your hurt;
7Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in HaAretz that I gave to Avoteichem, l'min olam v'ad olam (from forever to forever).
8Hinei, ye trust in divrei sheker (lying words), that are worthless.
9Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear l'sheker (falsely), and burn ketoret unto Ba'al, and walk after elohim acherim whom ye know not;
10And come and stand before Me in HaBeis Hazeh, which is called by Shmi, and say, We are delivered l'ma'an (in order to) do all these to'evot (abominations)?
11Is HaBeis Hazeh, which is called by Shmi, become a me'arah paritzim (a cave, a den of robbers, criminals) in your eyes? Hinei, even I have been watching, saith Hashem.
12But go ye now unto My Makom (Place) which was in Shiloh, where I made dwell Shmi barishonah (at the first), and see what I did to it because of the ra'at Ami Yisroel (the wickedness of My people Israel).
13And now, because ye have done all these ma'asim, saith Hashem, and I spoke unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye paid not heed; and I called you, but ye answered not;
14Therefore will I do unto this Beis, which is called by Shmi, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to Avoteichem, as I have done to Shiloh.
15And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your achim, even the whole zera Ephrayim.
16Therefore pray not thou on behalf of HaAm Hazeh, neither lift up plea nor tefillah for them, neither make intercession to Me; for I will not hear thee.
17Seest thou not what they do in the towns of Yehudah and in the chutzot (streets of) Yerushalayim?
18The banim gather wood, and the avot kindle the eish, and the nashim knead their batzek (dough), to make cakes to the Malkat HaShomayim (Queen of Heaven), and to pour out nesakhim (drink offerings) unto elohim acherim, that they may provoke Me to anger.
19Do they provoke Me to anger? saith Hashem; are they not provoking themselves, even to boshet (shame) on their own faces?
20Therefore thus saith Adonoi Hashem; Hinei, Mine anger and My fury shall be poured out upon Hamakom Hazeh (this place), upon haadam, and upon behemah, and upon the etz hasadeh, and upon the pri ha'adamah; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
21Thus saith Hashem Tzva'os, Elohei Yisroel; Add your olot unto your zevakhim, and eat basar.
22For I spoke not unto Avoteichem, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of Eretz Mitzrayim, concerning olah or zevach;
23But this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey My voice, and I will be for you Elohim (your G-d), and ye shall be My people; and walk ye in kol HaDerech that I have commanded you, l'ma'an (in order that) it may go well with you.
24But they paid heed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the inclinations of the stubbornness of their lev harah (evil heart), and went backward, and not forward.
25Since the day that Avoteichem came forth out of Eretz Mitzrayim unto this day I have even sent unto you all My servants the Nevi'im, daily rising up early and sending them;
26Yet they paid heed not unto Me, nor inclined their ear, but stiffened stubbornly their neck; they did more evil than their Avot.
27Therefore thou shalt speak all these devarim unto them; but they will not pay heed to thee; thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee.
28But thou shalt say unto them, This is a Goy (Nation) that obeyeth not the voice of Hashem Elohav, nor respondeth to musar; haemunah (the faith) is lost, and is cut off from their mouth.
29Cut off thine hair, O Yerushalayim, and throw it away, and take up a kinah (lamentation) on barren heights; for Hashem hath rejected and abandoned the dor evrato (the generation of His wrath).
30For the Bnei Yehudah have done rah in My sight, saith Hashem; they have set their shikkutzim (abominations) in the Beis which is called by Shmi, to make it tameh.
31And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the Gey Ben Hinnom, to burn their banim and their banot in the eish; which I commanded them not, neither entered it into My mind.
32Therefore, hinei, the yamim are coming, saith Hashem, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the Gey Ben Hinnom, but the Gey Haharegah (Valley of Slaughter); for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no room.
33And the nivlat HaAm Hazeh (carcass of this people) shall be food for the oph HaShomayim, and for the behemat ha'aretz; and none shall frighten them away.
34Then will I cause to cease from the towns of Yehudah, and from the chutzot Yerushalayim, the sound of joy, and the sound of simchah, the sound of the Choson (Bridegroom) and the sound of the Kallah (Bride); for HaAretz shall be desolate.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
FOURTH EDITION © Artists For Israel Intl Inc., 2002-2011, 2021.