Jeremiah 7
7
1This is the Lord's message that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2Go and stand in the entrance to the Lord's Temple, and deliver this message: Listen to what the Lord has to say, all of you from Judah who are coming in through these gates to worship the Lord. 3This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says:
Change your ways and do what's right, and I'll let you go on living here. 4Don't believe in those who try and deceive you by repeating, “The Temple of the Lord is here, the Temple of the Lord is here, the Temple of the Lord is here.”#7:4. In other words, because the Lord's Temple was located in Jerusalem, the Lord would never allow the city to be conquered.
5If you sincerely change your ways and do what's right, if you treat each other fairly, 6if you stop mistreating foreigners and orphans and widows, and if you stop murdering innocent people and stop hurting yourselves by worshiping other gods, 7then I'll let you go on living here in the country that I gave to your forefathers forever and ever.
8But look at you! You go on believing in these deceptions, these worthless words. 9Are you really going to continue stealing, murdering, committing adultery, and lying, burning incense to Baal, and worshiping other gods that you know nothing about, 10and then come and stand before me in my own Temple and say, “We're safe, so we can continue doing all these offensive things”? 11Do you see this house, my own Temple, as a den of thieves? Well, that's what it looks like to me too, declares the Lord.
12So why don't you go to Shiloh#7:12. See Psalms 78:60. where I first made myself a place for me to live with you, and see what I did to it because of the evil my people Israel did? 13I've warned you time and again about all these things you've done but you've refused to listen, declares the Lord. I've called out to you but you didn't want to answer me.
14So now I'm going to do to my Temple, what I did to Shiloh. This is the Temple you put your faith in, the place I gave to you and your forefathers. 15I will throw you out of my presence, just as I expelled all your Israelite relatives, all the descendants of Ephraim.#7:15. Referring to the capture and exile of the ten northern tribes.
16You, Jeremiah, are not to pray for these people. Don't cry out to me in prayer for them, don't plead with me on their behalf, because I won't listen to you. 17Can't you see how they're behaving in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18The children collect the firewood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods to make me angry and hurt. 19But is it really me they're hurting? declares the Lord. Aren't they really hurting themselves and bringing shame on themselves?
20So this is what the Lord God says: Watch! My furious anger will be poured out on this country, on people and animals, on the orchards and the crops in the field. It will burn and nobody will be able to put it out.
21This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You can add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat all the meat yourselves!#7:21. This was of course not permitted in Levitical law. However, what the Lord is saying is that since he won't accept their sacrifices they might as well eat all of the meat themselves. 22When I led your forefathers out of Egypt I didn't just give them instructions about burnt offerings and sacrifices, 23This is the commandment I gave them: Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Follow everything I have commanded you to do, so that all will go well for you.
24But they refused to listen or pay attention. Instead they followed the desires of their own stubborn and evil thinking, so they ended up going backward and not forward. 25From the time your forefathers left Egypt until now, I have sent you time after time my servants the prophets. 26But you refused to listen or pay them attention. Instead, you became more stubborn and rebellious than your forefathers!
27When you tell them all this, they won't listen to you. When you call out to them, they won't answer. 28So you have to tell them, “This is the nation that refused to listen to what the Lord their God said, and would not accept the Lord's discipline. Truth has died out; people don't even talk about it. 29Cut off your hair and throw it away.#7:29. Either as a sign of mourning (which was forbidden in Deuteronomy 14:1, presumably as a pagan practice), or as a sign they had broken their vow to God as if they were a Nazarite (Numbers 6:5). Sing a song of mourning on the bare hills, for the Lord has rejected and abandoned the generation who made him angry.”
30For the people of Judah have done what is evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have placed their offensive idols in my own Temple, making it unclean. 31They have built pagan shrines at Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom so they could sacrifice their sons and daughters by burning them in the fire. This is something I never commanded. I never even thought of such a thing!
32So watch out! The time is coming, declares the Lord, when instead of Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom this place will be called the Valley of Killing. People will bury their dead in Topheth until it's full. 33The dead bodies of these people will be food for birds of prey and wild animals, and there won't be anyone to scare them away.
34I will put a stop to the cheerful sounds of celebration and the happy voices of the bride and bridegroom from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the country will be turned into a wasteland.
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Jeremiah 7: FBV
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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com
Jeremiah 7
7
Jeremiah’s Proclamation at the Gate of the House of Yahweh
1The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,#Literally “to say” 2“Stand in the gate of the house of Yahweh and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, all of Judah, those who enter through these gates to bow in worship to Yahweh. 3Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Make your ways and your deeds good and let me dwell with you in this place. 4Do not trust in the deceitful words,#Literally “the words of the deception” saying,#Literally “to say” ‘The temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, they are the temple of Yahweh.’ 5For if you truly make your ways and your deeds good, if you truly do justice between a man and his neighbor, 6you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, you do not shed innocent blood in this place, and you do not go after other gods to your harm,#Literally “to harm to you” 7then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your ancestors#Or “fathers” forever and ever.#Literally “from eternity and until eternity”
8Look, you are relying for yourselves on deceitful words#Literally “the words of the deception” without benefiting. 9Will you steal? Will you murder? And will you commit adultery? And will you swear falsely?#Literally “to the lie” And will you make a smoke offering to the Baal? And will you go after other gods whom you have not known? 10And then you come and you stand before#Literally “to the face of” me in this house, which is called by my name,#Literally “my name over it” and you say, ‘we are safe to go on doing#Literally “for the sake of the doing of” all of these detestable things.’ 11Has this house, which is called by my name,#Literally “my name over it” become a cave of robbers in your eyes? Look, I, even I, have seen it,” #Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation declares#Literally “a declaration of” Yahweh.
12“For go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell in the beginning, and see what I did to it because of#Literally “from face” the wickedness of my people Israel. 13And now, because of your doing all these things,” declares#Literally “a declaration of” Yahweh, “and I have spoken to you over and over again,#Literally “I spoke to you doing early and speaking” and you have not listened, and I called you, and you have not answered, 14therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name,#Literally “my name over it” in which you are trusting, and to the place that I gave to you and to your ancestors#Or “fathers” what#Literally “as that” I did to Shiloh. 15And I will cast you out of my sight#Literally “from at my face” just as I cast out all of your blood relatives,#Or “brothers” all of the offspring of Ephraim.” ’
16“And you, you must not pray for this people, and you must not lift up for them a cry of entreaty or a prayer, and you must not plead with me, for I will not hear you. 17Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18The children are gathering wood, and the fathers are kindling the fire, and the women are kneading dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out libations to other gods for the sake of provoking me to anger. 19Are they provoking me to anger? ” declares#Literally “a declaration of” Yahweh, “Is it not themselves they hurt, for the sake of the shame of their faces?” 20Therefore#Literally “To thus” thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Look, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on the humankind, and on the animal, and on the tree of the field, and on the fruit of the ground, and it will not be extinguished.”
21Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. 22For I did not speak with your ancestors,#Or “fathers” nor did I command them in the day of bringing them out from the land of Egypt, concerning the matter of burnt offering and sacrifice. 23But I only commanded them this word, saying,#Literally “to say” ‘Obey my voice, and I will be to you God, and you will be to me people, and you must walk in all of the way that I command you, so that it goes well with you.’ 24Yet they did not obey, and they did not incline their ear, but they walked in their own plans, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and they became worse instead of better.#Literally “they were to backward and not to face” 25From the day that your ancestors#Or “fathers” came out from the land of Egypt until this day I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, day after day, sending again and again.#Literally “doing early and sending” 26Yet they have not listened to me and they have not inclined their ear, but they have hardened their neck, they did more evil than their ancestors.#Or “fathers” 27So you shall speak to them all these words, but they will not listen to you, and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you.
The Valley of the Slaughter
28“And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the voice of Yahweh their God, and they have not accepted discipline. The truth has perished, and it is cut off from their mouths.#Hebrew “mouth” 29Shear your hair and throw it#Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation away, and lift up a lament on the barren heights, for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.’ 30For the people #Or “children” of Judah have done evil in my eyes,” declares#Literally “a declaration of” Yahweh, “They have set their abominations in the house that is called by my name,#Literally “my name over it” to defile it. 31And they built the high place of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I have not commanded, and it did not come into my mind.#Or “heart” 32Therefore look, days are about to come,” declares#Literally “a declaration of” Yahweh, “and it will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of the Slaughter, and they will bury in Topheth until there is no more place.#Literally “from there is no place” 33And the dead bodies#Hebrew “body” of this people will be as food for the birds#Hebrew “bird” of the heavens,#Or “sky” and for the animals#Hebrew “animal” of the earth, without anyone to scare them#Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation away. 34And I will cause to disappear from the towns of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the sound of jubilation, and the sound of joy, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, for the land will become a site of ruins.
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