Jeremiah 7
7
Judah Trusts the Wrong Things
1The Lord spoke his word to Jeremiah. He said, 2“Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house, and announce from there this message: ‘Listen to the Lord’s word, all you people of Judah who go through these gates to worship the Lord. 3This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Change the way you live and act, and I will let you live in this place. 4Do not trust the words of this saying, “This is the Lord’s temple, the Lord’s temple, the Lord’s temple!” It’s a lie.
5“ ‘Suppose you really change the way you live and act and you really treat each other fairly. 6Suppose you do not oppress foreigners, orphans, and widows, or kill anyone in this place. And suppose you do not follow other gods that lead you to your own destruction. 7Then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave permanently to your ancestors long ago.
8“ ‘You are trusting the words of a saying. It’s a lie that cannot help you. 9You steal, murder, commit adultery, lie when you take oaths, burn incense as an offering to Baal, and run after other gods that you do not know. 10Then you stand in my presence in the house that is called by my name. You think that you’re safe to do all these disgusting things. 11The house that is called by my name has become a gathering place for thieves. I have seen what you are doing,’ ” declares the Lord.
12“ ‘But go to my place that was at Shiloh, where I first made a dwelling place for my name. See what I did to Shiloh because of the evil done by my people Israel. 13You have done the same things the people did at Shiloh,’ ” declares the Lord. “ ‘Although I spoke to you again and again, you did not listen. When I called you, you did not answer. 14So what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that is called by my name. This is the place I gave to you and to your ancestors, the place where you feel so safe. 15I will force you out of my sight as I forced out all your relatives, all of Ephraim’s descendants.’
16“Jeremiah, don’t pray for these people. Don’t cry or pray for them. Don’t plead with me, because I will not listen to you. 17Don’t you see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18Children gather wood, fathers light fires, and women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven. They pour out wine offerings to other gods in order to make me furious. 19They aren’t really provoking me,” declares the Lord. “But they are ⌞harming⌟ themselves to their own shame.
20“This is what the Almighty Lord says: My anger and fury will be poured out on this place, on humans and animals, and on trees and crops. My anger and fury will burn and not be put out.
21“This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the meat. 22When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I did not tell them anything about burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23But I did tell them this, ‘Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Live the way I told you to live so that things will go well for you.’ 24But they didn’t obey me or pay attention to me. They followed their own plans and their stubborn, evil ways. They went backward and not forward. 25From the time that your ancestors left Egypt until now, I have sent all my servants the prophets to you again and again. 26But you didn’t obey me or pay attention to me. You became impossible to deal with, and you were worse than your ancestors.
27“Jeremiah, you will say all these things to them, but they will not obey you. You will call to them, but they will not respond to you. 28You will say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the Lord their God. They did not accept discipline. Truth has disappeared and vanished from their lips.’
29“Cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a song of mourning on the bare hills, because in his anger the Lord has rejected and abandoned the people of this generation. 30The people of Judah have done what I consider evil,” declares the Lord. “They set up their detestable idols in the house that is called by my name. They have made it unclean.#7:30 “Unclean” refers to anything that Moses’ Teachings say is not presentable to God. 31They have built worship sites at Topheth in the valley of Ben Hinnom in order to burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices. I did not ask for this. It never entered my mind.
32“That is why the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when that place will no longer be known as Topheth or the valley of Ben Hinnom. Instead, it will be known as Slaughter Valley. They will bury ⌞people⌟ at Topheth because no other place will be left. 33The dead bodies of these people will become food for birds and animals, and no one will be there to frighten them away. 34In the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, I will banish the sounds of joy and happiness and the sounds of brides and grooms, because the land will be a wasteland.”
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Jeremiah 7: GW
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 7
7
Trusting in Lying Words
1The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2#Jer. 17:19; 26:2“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!’ ” 3Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: #Jer. 4:1; 18:11; 26:13“Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4#Jer. 7:8; Mic. 3:11Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.’
5“For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly #1 Kin. 6:12; Jer. 21:12; 22:3execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, 6if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, #Deut. 6:14, 15; Jer. 13:10or walk after other gods to your hurt, 7#Deut. 4:40then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in #Jer. 3:18the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.
8“Behold, you trust in #Jer. 5:31; 14:13, 14lying words that cannot profit. 9#1 Kin. 18:21; Hos. 4:1, 2; Zeph. 1:5Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and #Ex. 20:3; Jer. 7:6; 19:4walk after other gods whom you do not know, 10#Ezek. 23:39and then come and stand before Me in this house #Jer. 7:11, 14; 32:34; 34:15which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? 11Has #Is. 56:7this house, which is called by My name, become a #Matt. 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the Lord.
12“But go now to #Josh. 18:1; Judg. 18:31My place which was in Shiloh, #Deut. 12:11where I set My name at the first, and see #1 Sam. 4:10; Ps. 78:60; Jer. 26:6what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. 13And now, because you have done all these works,” says the Lord, “and I spoke to you, #2 Chr. 36:15; Jer. 11:7rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I #Prov. 1:24; Is. 65:12; 66:4called you, but you did not answer, 14therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to #1 Sam. 4:10, 11; Ps. 78:60; Jer. 26:6, 9Shiloh. 15And I will cast you out of My sight, #2 Kin. 17:23as I have cast out all your brethren—#Ps. 78:67; Hos. 7:13; 9:13; 12:1the whole posterity of Ephraim.
16“Therefore #Ex. 32:10; Deut. 9:14; Jer. 11:14do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; #Jer. 15:1for I will not hear you. 17Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18#Jer. 44:17The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they #Jer. 19:13pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger. 19#Deut. 32:16, 21Do they provoke Me to anger?” says the Lord. “Do they not provoke themselves, to the shame of their own faces?”
20Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place—on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and not be quenched.”
21Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: #Is. 1:11; Jer. 6:20; Hos. 8:13; Amos 5:21, 22“Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. 22#1 Sam. 15:22; Ps. 51:16; (Hos. 6:6)For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. 23But this is what I commanded them, saying, #Ex. 15:26; 16:32; Deut. 6:3‘Obey My voice, and #(Ex. 19:5, 6); Lev. 26:12; (Jer. 11:4; 13:11)I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ 24#Ps. 81:11; Jer. 11:8Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but #Deut. 29:19; Jer. 9:14followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and #Jer. 32:33went backward and not forward. 25Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even #2 Chr. 36:15; Jer. 25:4; 29:19; Mark 12:1–10; Luke 11:47–49sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. 26#Jer. 11:8Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but #Neh. 9:17stiffened their neck. #Jer. 16:12; Matt. 23:32They did worse than their fathers.
27“Therefore #Jer. 1:7; 26:2; 37:14, 15; 43:1–4; Ezek. 2:7you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.
Judgment on Obscene Religion
28“So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord their God #Jer. 5:3nor receive correction. #Jer. 9:3Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. 29#Job 1:20; Is. 15:2; Jer. 48:37; Mic. 1:16Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’ 30For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the Lord. #2 Kin. 21:4; 2 Chr. 33:3–5, 7; Jer. 32:34, 35; Ezek. 7:20; Dan. 9:27; 11:31“They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to pollute it. 31And they have built the #2 Kin. 23:10; Jer. 19:5; 32:35high places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to #Lev. 18:21; 2 Kin. 17:17; Ps. 106:38burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, #Deut. 17:3which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.
32“Therefore behold, #Jer. 19:6the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when it will no more be called Tophet, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; #2 Kin. 23:10; Jer. 19:11for they will bury in Tophet until there is no room. 33The #Jer. 9:22; 19:11; Ezek. 6:5corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. And no one will frighten them away. 34Then I will cause to #Is. 24:7, 8; Jer. 16:9; 25:10; Ezek. 26:13; Hos. 2:11; Rev. 18:23cease 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 #Lev. 26:33; Is. 1:7; Jer. 4:27the land shall be desolate.
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.