Jeremiah 7
Legacy Standard Bible
Yahweh’s Warning from the Temple Gate
7 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, 2 “(A)Stand in the gate of the house of Yahweh, and you shall call out there this word, and you shall say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship Yahweh!’” 3 Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “(B)Make your ways and your deeds good, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 (C)Do not trust in lying words, saying, ‘[a]This is the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh.’ 5 For (D)if you truly make your ways and your deeds good, if you truly (E)do justice between a man and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress the sojourner, the [b](F)orphan, or the widow, and do not shed (G)innocent blood in this place, nor (H)walk after other gods to your own evil demise, 7 then I will let you (I)dwell in this place, in the (J)land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.
8 “Behold, you are trusting in (K)lying words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear while lying, and (L)burn incense to Baal and walk after (M)other gods that you have not known, 10 then (N)come and stand before Me in (O)this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—that you may do all these abominations? 11 Has (P)this house, which is called by My name, become a (Q)robbers’ den in your sight? Behold, (R)I, even I, have seen it,” declares Yahweh.
12 “But go now to My place which was in (S)Shiloh, where I (T)made My name dwell at the first, and (U)see what I did to it because of the evil of My people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these works,” declares Yahweh, “and I spoke to you, (V)rising up early and (W)speaking, but you did not hear, and I (X)called you but you did not answer, 14 therefore, I will do to the (Y)house which is called by My name, (Z)in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, as I (AA)did to Shiloh. 15 I will (AB)cast you out of My presence, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the seed of (AC)Ephraim.
16 “As for you, (AD)do not pray for this people and do not lift up a cry of lamentation or prayer for them and do not intercede with Me, for I am not hearing you. 17 Are you not seeing what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The [c]children gather wood, and the fathers make the fire burn, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they (AE)pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to (AF)provoke Me. 19 (AG)Do they provoke Me?” declares Yahweh. “Is it not themselves they provoke to the (AH)shame of their own face?” 20 Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, My (AI)anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast and on the (AJ)trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched.”
21 Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Add your (AK)burnt offerings to your sacrifices and (AL)eat flesh. 22 For I did not (AM)speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 But this is [d]what I commanded them, saying, ‘(AN)Listen to My voice, and (AO)I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in the entire way which I command you, that it may (AP)be well with you.’ 24 Yet they (AQ)did not listen or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart and [e](AR)went backward and not forward. 25 Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have (AS)sent you all My slaves the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. 26 Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but (AT)stiffened their neck; they (AU)did more evil than their fathers.
27 “You shall (AV)speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will (AW)not answer you. 28 You shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that (AX)did not listen to the voice of Yahweh their God or receive discipline; [f](AY)truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.
29 (AZ)Cut off [g]your hair and cast it away,
And (BA)lift up a funeral lamentation on the bare heights;
For Yahweh has (BB)rejected and abandoned
The generation of His wrath.’
30 For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight,” declares Yahweh, “they have (BC)set their detestable things in the house, which is called by My name, to defile it. 31 They have (BD)built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to (BE)burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I (BF)did not command, and it did not come upon My heart.
32 “(BG)Therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when it will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of the Slaughter; for they will (BH)bury in Topheth [h]because there is no other place. 33 The (BI)dead bodies 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. 34 Then I will make to (BJ)cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the (BK)land will become a waste place.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 7:4 Lit They are
- Jeremiah 7:6 Or fatherless
- Jeremiah 7:18 Lit sons
- Jeremiah 7:23 Lit the word which
- Jeremiah 7:24 Lit they were
- Jeremiah 7:28 Lit faithfulness
- Jeremiah 7:29 Lit your crown
- Jeremiah 7:32 Or until there is no place left
Jeremiah 7
Common English Bible
The Lord’s temple
7 Jeremiah received the Lord’s word: 2 Stand 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. 3 This is what the Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, says: Improve your conduct and your actions, and I will dwell with you[a] in this place. 4 Don’t trust in lies: “This is the Lord’s temple! The Lord’s temple! The Lord’s temple!” 5 No, if you truly reform your ways and your actions; if you treat each other justly; 6 if 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, 7 only then will I dwell with you[b] in this place, in the land that I gave long ago to your ancestors for all time.
8 And yet you trust in lies that will only hurt you. 9 Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, sacrifice to Baal and go after other gods that you don’t know, 10 and 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? 11 Do 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. 12 Just go to my sanctuary[c] 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. 13 And 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, 14 I 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. 15 I will cast you out of my sight, just as I cast out the rest of your family, all the people of Ephraim.
16 As 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. 17 Can’t you see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The 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. 19 But am I the one they are really offending? declares the Lord. Aren’t they in fact humiliating themselves? 20 Therefore, 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.
21 This is what the Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, says: Add your entirely burned offerings to your sacrifices and eat them yourselves! 22 On 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. 23 Rather, 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. 24 But they didn’t listen or pay attention. They followed their willful and evil hearts and went backward rather than forward. 25 From the moment your ancestors left the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent you all my servants the prophets—day after day. 26 But they didn’t listen to me or pay attention; they were stubborn and did more harm than their ancestors. 27 When you tell them all this, they won’t listen to you. When you call to them, they won’t respond. 28 Therefore, say to them: This nation neither obeys the Lord its God nor accepts correction; truth has disappeared; it has vanished from their lips.
29 Cut 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.
30 The 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. 31 They 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. 32 So 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. 33 The corpses of this people will be food for birds and wild animals, with no one to drive them off. 34 I 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.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 7:3 Or I will let you dwell
- Jeremiah 7:7 Or I will let you dwell
- Jeremiah 7:12 Or place
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