Jeremiah 7
7
The LORD’s temple
1Jeremiah received the LORD’s word: 2Stand near the gate of the LORD’s temple and proclaim there this message: Listen to the LORD’s word, all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD. 3This is what the LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, says: Improve your conduct and your actions, and I will dwell with you#7.3 Or I will let you dwell in this place. 4Don’t trust in lies: “This is the LORD’s temple! The LORD’s temple! The LORD’s temple!” 5No, if you truly reform your ways and your actions; if you treat each other justly; 6if you stop taking advantage of the immigrant, orphan, or widow; if you don’t shed the blood of the innocent in this place, or go after other gods to your own ruin, 7only then will I dwell with you#7.7 Or I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave long ago to your ancestors for all time.
8And yet you trust in lies that will only hurt you. 9Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, sacrifice to Baal and go after other gods that you don’t know, 10and then come and stand before me in this temple that bears my name, and say, “We are safe,” only to keep on doing all these detestable things? 11Do you regard this temple, which bears my name, as a hiding place for criminals? I can see what’s going on here, declares the LORD. 12Just go to my sanctuary#7.12 Or place in Shiloh, where I let my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, because you haven’t listened when I spoke to you again and again or responded when I called you, 14I will do to this temple that bears my name and on which you rely, the place that I gave to you and your ancestors, just as I did to Shiloh. 15I will cast you out of my sight, just as I cast out the rest of your family, all the people of Ephraim.
16As for you, don’t pray for these people, don’t cry out or plead for them, and don’t intercede with me, for I won’t listen to you. 17Can’t you see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven. And to offend me all the more, they pour out drink offerings to foreign gods. 19But am I the one they are really offending? declares the LORD. Aren’t they in fact humiliating themselves? 20Therefore, this is what the LORD God says: I’m going to pour out my fierce anger on this place, on humans and beasts, on the trees of the field and the crops of the fertile land. It will burn and not go out.
21This is what the LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, says: Add your entirely burned offerings to your sacrifices and eat them yourselves! 22On the day I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I didn’t say a thing—I gave no instructions—about entirely burned offerings or sacrifices. 23Rather, this is what I required of them: Obey me so that I may become your God and you may become my people. Follow the path I mark out for you so that it may go well with you. 24But they didn’t listen or pay attention. They followed their willful and evil hearts and went backward rather than forward. 25From the moment your ancestors left the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent you all my servants the prophets—day after day. 26But they didn’t listen to me or pay attention; they were stubborn and did more harm than their ancestors. 27When you tell them all this, they won’t listen to you. When you call to them, they won’t respond. 28Therefore, say to them: This nation neither obeys the LORD its God nor accepts correction; truth has disappeared; it has vanished from their lips.
29Cut off your hair and cast it away;
grieve on the well-traveled paths.
The LORD has rejected you
and has cast off a generation that provokes his anger.
30The people of Judah have done what displeases me, declares the LORD. They have corrupted the temple that bears my name by setting up their disgusting idols. 31They have built shrines at Topheth in the Ben-hinnom Valley to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, although I never commanded such a thing, nor did it ever cross my mind. 32So now the time is coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer speak of Topheth or the Ben-hinnom Valley, but the Carnage Valley. They will bury in Topheth until no space is left. 33The corpses of this people will be food for birds and wild animals, with no one to drive them off. 34I will silence the sound of joy and delight as well as the voice of bride and bridegroom in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, for the country will be reduced to a wasteland.
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Jeremiah 7: CEB
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2011 Common English Bible. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 7
7
Mend Your Ways!
1The word that came to Jeremiah from Adonai, saying:
2Stand in the gate of Adonai’s house and proclaim there this word and say: “Hear the word of Adonai, all you of Judah that come through these gates to worship Adonai.
3Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel; mend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you live in this place.
4Do not trust in deceptive words and say ‘The Temple of Adonai, the Temple of Adonai, the Temple of Adonai!’
5“No, if you truly mend your ways and your deeds—if you are doing justice between a man and his neighbor,
6not oppressing the sojourner, orphan and widow nor shedding innocent blood in this place, nor going after other gods to your own ruin—
7then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.
8Look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are empty.
9Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and perjury, and offer incense to Baal and walk after other gods whom you have not known—
10and then come and stand before Me in this house that bears My Name, saying, ‘We are saved!’—so that you may keep doing all these abominations?
11Has this House, which bears My Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Look, even I have seen it!” It is a declaration of Adonai.
12“Indeed, go now to My place that was in Shiloh, where I first made My Name dwell. Now see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.
13While you were doing all these things,” declares Adonai, “I spoke to you early and often, but you did not listen, and I called you but you did not answer.
14Therefore I will do to the House that bears My Name—the one in which you trust, the one that I gave to you and to your fathers—as I have done to Shiloh.
15And I will cast you out of My sight, just as I cast out all your brothers, all the offspring of Ephraim.
16“As for you, do not pray for this people. Do not offer any supplication or petition for them, nor entreat Me, because I will not hear you.
17Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
18The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire and the women knead the dough to make sacrificial cakes to the queen of heaven. Moreover, they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to provoke Me to anger.
19But am I the One they are provoking?” declares Adonai. “Are they not vexing themselves to their own shame?”
20Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: “My anger and My wrath is about to be poured out on this place—on man and beast, and on the trees of the field and the fruit of the land—and it will burn and not be quenched.”
21Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the meat!
22For on the day that I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt I did not speak to them nor did I command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices,
23but I explicitly commanded them: ‘Obey My voice and I will be your God to you and you will be My people. Walk in all the ways that I command you that it may go well with you.’
24But they did not listen or pay attention. Instead they followed their own counsel, in the stubbornness of their evil heart. They have gone backward and not forward,
25from the day your fathers left the land of Egypt until today. Although I sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily and persistently,
26they did not listen to Me or pay attention. Rather, they stiffened their neck, doing more evil than their fathers.
27“When you tell them all these things, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer you.
28So you will say to them, ‘This nation has not obeyed the voice of Adonai their God or received correction. Truth has perished and is cut off from their mouth.
29Cut off your hair and throw it away and take up a lamentation on the barren hills. For Adonai has spurned and cast off the generation of His wrath.”
Valley of Slaughter
30“The children of Judah have done what is evil in My sight”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“They have set their detestable things in the House that bears My Name to defile it.
31They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire—which I did not command, nor did it even enter My mind.
32Therefore, the days are soon coming,” declares Adonai, “when it will no longer be called Topheth, nor the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they will bury in Topheth until there is no room.
33The carcasses of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth, and no one will frighten them away.
34Then I will bring an end, from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem, to the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. For the land will be desolate.”
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