Jeremiah 7
7
Jeremiah Speaks in the Temple
(Jeremiah 26.1-6)
1-3The Lord told me to stand by the gate of the temple#7.1-3 temple: The Hebrew text has “house of the Lord,” another name for the temple. and tell the people who were going in that the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, had said:
Pay attention, people of Judah! Change your ways and start living right, then I will let you keep on living in your own country.#7.1-3 let you … own country: Or “live here with you.” 4Don't fool yourselves! My temple is here in Jerusalem, but that doesn't mean I will protect you. 5I will keep you safe only if you change your ways and are fair and honest with each other. 6Stop taking advantage of foreigners, orphans, and widows. Don't kill innocent people. And stop worshiping other gods. 7Then I will let you enjoy a long life in this land I gave your ancestors.
8But just look at what is happening! You put your trust in worthless lies. 9You steal and murder; you lie in court and are unfaithful in marriage. You worship idols and offer incense to Baal, when these gods have never done anything for you. 10And then you come into my temple and worship me! Do you think I will protect you so that you can go on sinning? 11#Mt 21.13; Mk 11.17; Lk 19.46. You are thieves, and you have made my temple your hideout. But I've seen everything you have done.
12 #
Js 18.1; Ps 78.60; Jr 26.6. Go to Shiloh, where my sacred tent once stood. Take a look at what I did there. My people Israel sinned, and so I destroyed Shiloh!
13While you have been sinning, I have been trying to talk to you, but you refuse to listen. 14Don't think this temple will protect you. Long ago I told your ancestors to build it and worship me here, but now I have decided to tear it down, just as I destroyed Shiloh. 15And as for you, people of Judah, I'm going to send you away from my land, just as I sent away the people of Ephraim and the other northern tribes.
Punishment for Worshiping Other Gods
16Jeremiah, don't pray for these people! I, the Lord, would refuse to listen. 17Do you see what the people of Judah are doing in their towns and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18#Jr 44.17-19. Children gather firewood, their fathers build fires, and their mothers mix dough to bake bread for the goddess they call the Queen of Heaven.#7.18 Queen of Heaven: Probably another name for the goddess Astarte. They even offer wine sacrifices to other gods, just to insult me. 19But they are not only insulting me; they are also harming themselves by doing these shameful things.
20And now, I, the Lord All-Powerful, will flood Judah with my fiery anger until nothing is left—no people or animals, no trees or crops.
It Is Useless To Offer Sacrifices
21The Lord told me to say to the people of Judah:
I am the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, but I won't accept sacrifices from you. So don't even bother bringing them to me. You might as well just cook the meat for yourselves.
22At the time I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I didn't command them to offer sacrifices to me. 23Instead, I told them, “If you listen to me and do what I tell you, I will be your God, you will be my people, and all will go well for you.” 24But your ancestors refused to listen. They were stubborn, and whenever I wanted them to go one way, they always went the other. 25Ever since your ancestors left Egypt, I have been sending my servants the prophets to speak for me. 26But you have ignored me and become even more stubborn and sinful than your ancestors ever were!
Slaughter Valley
The Lord said:
27Jeremiah, no matter what you do, the people won't listen. 28So you must say to them:
People of Judah, I am the Lord your God, but you have refused to obey me, and you didn't change when I punished you. And now, you no longer even pretend to be faithful to me.
29Shave your head bald
and throw away the hair.
Sing a funeral song
on top of a barren hill.
You people have made me angry,
and I have abandoned you.
30You have disobeyed me by putting your disgusting idols in my temple, and now the temple itself is disgusting to me. 31#2 K 23.10; Jr 32.35; Lv 18.21. At Topheth in Hinnom Valley you have built altars where you kill your children and burn them as sacrifices to other gods. I would never think of telling you to do this. 32So watch out! Someday that place will no longer be called Topheth or Hinnom Valley. It will be called Slaughter Valley, because you will bury your dead there until you run out of room, 33and then bodies will lie scattered on the ground. Birds and wild animals will come and eat, and no one will be around to scare them off. 34#Jr 16.9; 25.10; Ba 2.23; Rev 18.23. When I am finished with your land, there will be deathly silence in the empty ruins of Jerusalem and the towns of Judah—no happy voices, no sounds of parties or wedding celebrations.
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Jeremiah 7: CEVDCI
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Yirmeyahu (Jer) 7
7
1This word came to Yirmeyahu from Adonai: 2“Stand at the gate of the house of Adonai and proclaim this word: ‘Listen to the word of Adonai, all you from Y’hudah who enter these gates to worship Adonai! 3Here is what Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says: “Improve your ways and actions, and I will let you stay in this place. 4Don’t rely on that deceitful slogan, ‘The temple of Adonai, the temple of Adonai — these [buildings] are the temple of Adonai.’ 5No, but if you really improve your ways and actions; if you really administer justice between people; 6if you stop oppressing foreigners, orphans and widows; if you stop shedding innocent blood in this place; and if you stop following other gods, to your own harm; 7then I will let you stay in this place, in the land I gave to your ancestors forever and ever. 8Look! You are relying on deceitful words that can’t do you any good. 9First you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, offer to Ba‘al and go after other gods that you haven’t known. 10Then you come and stand before me in this house that bears my name and say, ‘We are saved’ — so that you can go on doing these abominations! 11Do you regard this house, which bears my name, as a cave for bandits? I can see for myself what’s going on,” says Adonai. 12“Go to the place in Shiloh that used to be mine, that used to bear my name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Isra’el. 13I spoke to you again and again, but you wouldn’t listen. I called you, but you wouldn’t answer. Now,” says Adonai, “because you have done all these things, 14I will do to the house that bears my name, on which you rely, and to the place I gave you and your ancestors, what I did to Shiloh; 15and I will drive you out of my presence, just as I drove out all your kinsmen, all the descendants of Efrayim.”’
16“So you, [Yirmeyahu,] don’t pray for this people! Don’t cry, pray or intercede on their behalf with me; because I won’t listen to you. 17Don’t you see what they are doing in the cities of Y’hudah and in the streets of Yerushalayim? 18The children gather the wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and, just to provoke me, they pour out drink offerings to other gods! 19Are they really provoking me,” asks Adonai, “or are they provoking themselves, to their own ruin?”
20Therefore, here is what Adonai Elohim says: “My anger and fury will be poured out on this place, on men, animals, trees in the fields and produce growing from the ground; and it will burn without being quenched.”
21Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el: “You may as well eat the meat of your burnt offerings along with that of your sacrifices. 22For I didn’t speak to your ancestors or give them orders concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. 23Rather, what I did order them was this: ‘Pay attention to what I say. Then I will be your God, and you will be my people. In everything, live according to the way that I order you, so that things will go well for you.’ 24But they neither listened nor paid attention, but lived according to their own plans, in the stubbornness of their evil hearts, thus going backward and not forward. 25You have done this from the day your ancestors came out of Egypt until today. Even though I sent you all my servants the prophets, sending them time after time, 26they would not listen or pay attention to me, but stiffened their necks; they did worse than their ancestors. 27So tell them all this; but they won’t listen to you; likewise, call to them; but they won’t answer you. 28Therefore, say to them,
‘This is the nation that has not listened
to the voice of Adonai their God.
They won’t take correction; faithfulness has perished;
it has vanished from their mouths.
29Cut off your hair, and throw it away,
take up a lament on the bare hills,
for Adonai has rejected and abandoned
the generation that rouses his anger.’
30“For the people of Y’hudah have done what is evil from my perspective,” says Adonai; “they have set up their detestable things in the house which bears my name, to defile it. 31They have built the high places of Tofet in the Ben-Hinnom Valley, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, something I never ordered; in fact, such a thing never even entered my mind! 32Therefore, the days are coming,” says Adonai, “when it will no longer be called either Tofet or the Ben-Hinnom Valley, but the Valley of Slaughter — they will put the dead in Tofet, because there will be no space left [anywhere else]. 33The corpses of this people will become food for the birds in the air and the wild animals; no one will frighten them away. 34Then in the cities of Y’hudah and the streets of Yerushalayim I will silence the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of bridegroom and bride; because the land will be reduced to ruins.
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