Jeremiah 7
Christian Standard Bible
False Trust in the Temple
7 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord(A) 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 Armies, the God of Israel, says: Correct your ways and your actions,(B) and I will allow you to live in this place. 4 Do not trust deceitful words, chanting, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.” 5 Instead, if you really correct your ways and your actions, if you act justly toward one another,[a](C) 6 if you no longer oppress the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow(D) and no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods, bringing harm on yourselves, 7 I will allow you to live in this place, the land I gave to your ancestors(E) long ago and forever. 8 But 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?(F) 10 Then do you come and stand before me in this house(G) that bears my name and say, “We are rescued, so we can continue doing all these detestable acts”? 11 Has this house, which bears my name, become a den of robbers(H) in your view? Yes, I too have seen it.(I)
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.(J) See what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 Now, because you have done all these things—this is the Lord’s declaration—and because I have spoken to you time and time again[b] but you wouldn’t listen,(K) and I have called to you, but you wouldn’t answer,(L) 14 what I did to Shiloh I will do to the house that bears my name,(M) the house in which you trust, the place that I gave you and your ancestors. 15 I will banish you from my presence, just as I banished all of your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.’(N)
Do Not Pray for Judah
16 “As for you, do not pray for these people.(O) Do not offer a cry or a prayer on their behalf, and do not beg me,(P) for I will not listen to you.(Q) 17 Don’t you see how they behave in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven,[c](R) and they pour out drink offerings to other gods so that they provoke me to anger. 19 But are they really provoking me?” (S) This is the Lord’s declaration. “Isn’t it they themselves being provoked to disgrace?”
20 Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “Look, my anger—my burning wrath—is about to be poured out on this place,(T) on people and animals, on the tree of the field, and on the produce of the land. My wrath will burn and not be quenched.”(U)
Obedience over Sacrifice
21 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves,(V) 22 for when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them(W) or command them concerning burnt offering and sacrifice. 23 However, I did give them this command: ‘Obey me, and then I will be your God, and you will be my people. Follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you.’(X) 24 Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention(Y) but followed their own advice and their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward.(Z) 25 Since the day your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until today, I have sent all my servants the prophets(AA) to you time and time again.[d](AB) 26 However, my people wouldn’t listen to me or pay attention but became obstinate;(AC) they did more evil than their ancestors.(AD)
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. 28 Therefore, declare to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the Lord their God and would not accept discipline. Truth[e] has perished—it has disappeared from their mouths. 29 Cut off the hair of your sacred vow[f](AE) and throw it away. Raise up a dirge on the barren heights,(AF) for the Lord has rejected and abandoned the generation under his wrath.’(AG)
30 “For the Judeans have done what is evil in my sight.” This is the Lord’s declaration. “They have set up their abhorrent things(AH) in the house that bears my name in order to defile it.(AI) 31 They have built the high places of Topheth[g](AJ) in Ben Hinnom Valley[h](AK) in order to burn their sons and daughters in the fire,(AL) a thing I did not command; I never entertained the thought.
32 “Therefore, look, the days are coming”(AM)—the Lord’s declaration—“when this place will no longer be called Topheth and Ben Hinnom Valley, but Slaughter Valley.(AN) Topheth will become a cemetery,[i] because there will be no other burial place. 33 The 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.(AO) 34 I 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,(AP) for the land will become a desolate waste.(AQ)
Footnotes
- 7:5 Lit justly between a man and his neighbor
- 7:13 Lit you rising early and speaking
- 7:18 = a pagan goddess
- 7:25 Lit you, each day rising early and sending
- 7:28 Or Faithfulness
- 7:29 Lit off your consecration
- 7:31 Lit of the fireplace
- 7:31 A valley south of Jerusalem
- 7:32 Lit They will bury in Topheth
Jeremiah 7
Lexham English Bible
Jeremiah’s Proclamation at the Gate of the House of Yahweh
7 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,[a] 2 “Stand in the gate of the house of Yahweh and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, all of Judah, those who enter through these gates to bow in worship to Yahweh. 3 Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Make your ways and your deeds good and let me dwell with you in this place. 4 Do not trust in the deceitful words,[b] saying,[c] ‘The temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, they are the temple of Yahweh.’ 5 For if you truly make your ways and your deeds good, if you truly do justice between a man and his neighbor, 6 you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, you do not shed innocent blood in this place, and you do not go after other gods to your harm,[d] 7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your ancestors[e] forever and ever.[f]
8 Look, you are relying for yourselves on deceitful words[g] without benefiting. 9 Will you steal? Will you murder? And will you commit adultery? And will you swear falsely?[h] And will you make a smoke offering to the Baal? And will you go after other gods whom you have not known? 10 And then you come and you stand before[i] me in this house, which is called by my name,[j] and you say, ‘we are safe to go on doing[k] all of these detestable things.’ 11 Has this house, which is called by my name,[l] become a cave of robbers in your eyes? Look, I, even I, have seen it,” [m] declares[n] Yahweh.
12 “For go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell in the beginning, and see what I did to it because of[o] the wickedness of my people Israel. 13 And now, because of your doing all these things,” declares[p] Yahweh, “and I have spoken to you over and over again,[q] and you have not listened, and I called you, and you have not answered, 14 therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name,[r] in which you are trusting, and to the place that I gave to you and to your ancestors[s] what[t] I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight[u] just as I cast out all of your blood relatives,[v] all of the offspring of Ephraim.”’
16 “And you, you must not pray for this people, and you must not lift up for them a cry of entreaty or a prayer, and you must not plead with me, for I will not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children are gathering wood, and the fathers are kindling the fire, and the women are kneading dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out libations to other gods for the sake of provoking me to anger. 19 Are they provoking me to anger? ” declares[w] Yahweh, “Is it not themselves they hurt, for the sake of the shame of their faces?” 20 Therefore[x] thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Look, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on the humankind, and on the animal, and on the tree of the field, and on the fruit of the ground, and it will not be extinguished.”
21 Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. 22 For I did not speak with your ancestors,[y] nor did I command them in the day of bringing them out from the land of Egypt, concerning the matter of burnt offering and sacrifice. 23 But I only commanded them this word, saying,[z] ‘Obey my voice, and I will be to you God, and you will be to me people, and you must walk in all of the way that I command you, so that it goes well with you.’ 24 Yet they did not obey, and they did not incline their ear, but they walked in their own plans, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and they became worse instead of better.[aa] 25 From the day that your ancestors[ab] came out from the land of Egypt until this day I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, day after day, sending again and again.[ac] 26 Yet they have not listened to me and they have not inclined their ear, but they have hardened their neck, they did more evil than their ancestors.[ad] 27 So you shall speak to them all these words, but they will not listen to you, and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you.
The Valley of the Slaughter
28 “And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the voice of Yahweh their God, and they have not accepted discipline. The truth has perished, and it is cut off from their mouths.[ae] 29 Shear your hair and throw it[af] away, and lift up a lament on the barren heights, for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.’ 30 For the people [ag] of Judah have done evil in my eyes,” declares[ah] Yahweh, “They have set their abominations in the house that is called by my name,[ai] to defile it. 31 And they built the high place of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I have not commanded, and it did not come into my mind.[aj] 32 Therefore look, days are about to come,” declares[ak] Yahweh, “and it will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of the Slaughter, and they will bury in Topheth until there is no more place.[al] 33 And the dead bodies[am] of this people will be as food for the birds[an] of the heavens,[ao] and for the animals[ap] of the earth, without anyone to scare them[aq] away. 34 And I will cause to disappear from the towns of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the sound of jubilation, and the sound of joy, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, for the land will become a site of ruins.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 7:1 Literally “to say”
- Jeremiah 7:4 Literally “the words of the deception”
- Jeremiah 7:4 Literally “to say”
- Jeremiah 7:6 Literally “to harm to you”
- Jeremiah 7:7 Or “fathers”
- Jeremiah 7:7 Literally “from eternity and until eternity”
- Jeremiah 7:8 Literally “the words of the deception”
- Jeremiah 7:9 Literally “to the lie”
- Jeremiah 7:10 Literally “to the face of”
- Jeremiah 7:10 Literally “my name over it”
- Jeremiah 7:10 Literally “for the sake of the doing of”
- Jeremiah 7:11 Literally “my name over it”
- Jeremiah 7:11 Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
- Jeremiah 7:11 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 7:12 Literally “from face”
- Jeremiah 7:13 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 7:13 Literally “I spoke to you doing early and speaking”
- Jeremiah 7:14 Literally “my name over it”
- Jeremiah 7:14 Or “fathers”
- Jeremiah 7:14 Literally “as that”
- Jeremiah 7:15 Literally “from at my face”
- Jeremiah 7:15 Or “brothers”
- Jeremiah 7:19 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 7:20 Literally “To thus”
- Jeremiah 7:22 Or “fathers”
- Jeremiah 7:23 Literally “to say”
- Jeremiah 7:24 Literally “they were to backward and not to face”
- Jeremiah 7:25 Or “fathers”
- Jeremiah 7:25 Literally “doing early and sending”
- Jeremiah 7:26 Or “fathers”
- Jeremiah 7:28 Hebrew “mouth”
- Jeremiah 7:29 Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
- Jeremiah 7:30 Or “children”
- Jeremiah 7:30 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 7:30 Literally “my name over it”
- Jeremiah 7:31 Or “heart”
- Jeremiah 7:32 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 7:32 Literally “from there is no place”
- Jeremiah 7:33 Hebrew “body”
- Jeremiah 7:33 Hebrew “bird”
- Jeremiah 7:33 Or “sky”
- Jeremiah 7:33 Hebrew “animal”
- Jeremiah 7:33 Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.
2012 by Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software