Jeremiah 7
7
Amend Your Ways and Your Doings
1The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2Stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. 3Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.
5For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; 6if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt; 7then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
8Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. 9Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Ba´al, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; 10and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? 11#Matt 21.13; Mark 11.17; Luke 19.46. Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord. 12#Josh 18.1; Ps 78.60; Jer 26.6. But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. 13And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; 14therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. 15And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of E´phra-im.
16Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee. 17Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. 19Do they provoke me to anger? saith the Lord: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? 20Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
The Punishment for Judah's Rebellion
21Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. 22For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: 23but this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. 24But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. 25Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: 26yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.
27Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee. 28But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
29Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
30For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the Lord: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it. 31#2 Kgs 23.10; Jer 32.35; Lev 18.21. And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. 32Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place. 33And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away. 34#Jer 16.9; 25.10; Rev 18.23. Then will I cause to cease 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 the land shall be desolate.
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Jeremiah 7: KJVAAE
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King James Version 1611, spelling, punctuation and text formatting modernized by ABS in 1962; typesetting © 2010 American Bible Society.
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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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com