Jeremiah 7
7
False Trust in the Temple
1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2“Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord # Jr 26:2 and there call out this word: Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the Lord.
3“This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Correct your ways and your deeds, # Jr 4:18; 18:11; 26:13 and I will allow you to live in this place. 4Do not trust deceitful words, chanting: This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. 5Instead, if you really change your ways and your actions, if you act justly toward one another, # Lit justly between a man and his neighbor # Jr 22:3 6if you no longer oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow # Dt 19:10,13; 21:8-9; 2Kg 21:16; 24:4; Jr 22:3,17; 26:15; Mt 27:4 and no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods, bringing harm on yourselves, 7I will allow you to live in this place, the land I gave to your ancestors # Gn 12:7; Jos 1:2; Jr 30:3 long ago and forever. 8But look, you keep trusting in deceitful words that cannot help.
9“Do you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known? # Ex 20:3-17; Lv 19:11-12; Dt 5:7-21; Ezk 18:5-9,14-18; 22:6-12; Hs 4:2 10Then do you come and stand before Me in this house # Jr 32:34 called by My name and say, ‘We are delivered, so we can continue doing all these detestable acts’? 11Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers # Is 56:7; Mt 21:13; Mk 11:17; Lk 19:46 in your view? Yes, I too have seen it.” # Ps 33:13-15; Ezk 8:12; Am 9:1-4
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Shiloh As a Warning
12“But return to My place that was at Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at first. # Dt 12:11; 14:23; 16:6,11 See what I did to it because of the evil of My people Israel. 13Now, because you have done all these things” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “and because I have spoken to you time and time again # Lit you rising early and speaking but you wouldn’t listen, # Jr 7:25; 11:7; 25:3; 26:5; 29:19; ; 32:33; 35:14,15; 44:4 and I have called to you, but you wouldn’t answer, # Pr 1:24; Is 65:12 14what I did to Shiloh I will do to the house that is called by My name # Dt 12:5; 1Kg 9:7; Mk 13:2 — the house in which you trust — the place that I gave you and your ancestors. 15I will drive you from My presence, just as I drove out all of your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim. # Dt 29:28; 2Kg 17
Do Not Pray for Judah
16“As for you, do not pray for these people. # Jr 11:14; 14:11-12; 15:1 Do not offer a cry or a prayer on their behalf, and do not beg Me, # Gn 23:8; Ru 1:16; Jr 27:18 for I will not listen to you. # Ex 32:11-13,20-34; Jr 14:11; 15:1 17Don’t you see how they behave in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, # = a pagan goddess # Jr 44:17-19,25 and they pour out drink offerings to other gods so that they provoke Me to anger. 19But are they really provoking Me? ” # Jb 35:6 This is the Lord’s declaration. “Isn’t it they themselves being provoked to disgrace? ”
20Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “Look, My anger — My burning wrath — is about to be poured out on this place, # Jr 42:18; Lm 4:11 on man and beast, on the tree of the field, and on the produce of the land. My wrath will burn and not be quenched.” # Nah 1:6
Obedience Over Sacrifice
21This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves, # Dt 12:4-28; Ps 50:13; Hs 8:13 22for when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them # Hs 6:6 or command them concerning burnt offering and sacrifice. 23However, I did give them this command: Obey Me, and then I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you. # Dt 5:33 24Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention # Ps 81:11 but followed their own advice and according to their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward. # Jr 15:6 25Since the day your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent all My servants the prophets # 2Kg 9:7; 17:13; Jr 26:5; 29:19; 35:15; 44:4; Ezk 38:17; Zch 1:6 to you time and time again. # Lit you, each day rising early and sending # 2Ch 36:15-16; Jr 25:4 26However, they wouldn’t listen to Me or pay attention but became obstinate; # Lit but stiffened their neck # Ex 32:9; Dt 9:6,13; 2Kg 17:14; Jr 17:23; 19:15 they did more evil than their ancestors. # 1Kg 16:25; 2Kg 21:11
A Lament for Disobedient Judah
27“When you speak all these things to them, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer you. 28You must therefore declare to them: This is the nation that would not listen to the voice of the Lord their God and would not accept discipline. Truth # Or Faithfulness has perished — it has disappeared from their mouths. 29Cut off the hair of your sacred vow # Lit off your consecration # Nm 6:1-8 and throw it away. Raise up a dirge on the barren heights, # Jr 3:2,21 for the Lord has rejected and abandoned the generation under His wrath. # Is 2:6
30“For the Judeans have done what is evil in My sight.” This is the Lord’s declaration. “They have set up their detestable things # Jr 4:1; 16:18; 32:34 in the house that is called by My name and defiled it. # 2Kg 23:24 31They have built the high places of Topheth # Lit of the fireplace # 2Kg 23:10; Jr 19:6,11-14 in the Valley of Hinnom # A valley south of Jerusalem # Jos 15:8; Jr 19:5; 32:35 in order to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, # Lv 18:21; Dt 12:31; 2Kg 17:17,31; 2Ch 28:3; Jr 19:5; Ezk 16:21; 20:31; 23:25,37,47 a thing I did not command; I never entertained the thought. # Lit command, and it did not arise on My heart
32“Therefore, take note! Days are coming” # Jr 16:14; 19:6; 23:5; 48:12; 49:2; 51:47,52 — the Lord’s declaration — “when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. # Jr 19:6 Topheth will become a cemetery, # Lit They will bury in Topheth because there will be no other burial place. 33The corpses of these people will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land, with no one to scare them away. # Dt 28:26; Ps 79:2; Jr 16:4; 19:7; 34:27; Ezk 29:5 34I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and gladness and the voices of the groom and the bride, # Jr 16:9; 25:10; 33:11 for the land will become a desolate waste. # Lv 26:31,33; Is 64:11; Jr 25:9,11,18; 27:17; 44:2,6,22
Currently Selected:
Jeremiah 7: HCSB
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
© 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.
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.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.