Jeremiah 7
Expanded Bible
Jeremiah’s Temple Message
7 This is the word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah: 2 “Stand at the gate of the ·Temple [L house of God] and ·preach [proclaim] this ·message [L word] there:
“‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of the nation of Judah! All you who come through these gates to ·worship [bow down to] the Lord, listen to this message! 3 This is what the Lord ·All-Powerful [Almighty; of Heaven’s Armies; T of hosts], the God of Israel, says: ·Change your lives and do what is right [L Reform/Amend your ways/paths and your deeds]! Then I will ·let you live [or live with you] in this place. 4 Don’t ·trust [put confidence in] ·the lies of people who say [L false words], “This is the Temple of the Lord. This is the Temple of the Lord. This is the Temple of the Lord [C presumptuously thinking that God will not destroy the city as long as his house is there]!” 5 You must ·change your lives and do what is right [L reform/amend your ways/paths and your deeds]. Be fair to each other. 6 You must not ·be hard on [oppress] ·strangers [resident aliens], orphans, and widows [Deut. 10:18]. Don’t ·kill [L spill the blood of] innocent people in this place! Don’t ·follow [L go after] other gods, or they will ·ruin [harm; hurt] your lives. 7 If you do these things, I will ·let you live [or live with you] in this land that I gave to your ·ancestors [fathers] ·to keep forever [L forever and ever].
8 “‘But look, you ·are trusting [have confidence in] ·lies [L false words], which is useless. 9 Will you steal and murder and be guilty of adultery? Will you falsely ·accuse other people [take oaths; swear]? Will you ·burn incense [make offerings] to the god Baal and ·follow [L go after] other gods you have not known? 10 If you do that, do you think you can come before me and stand in this ·place [L house] ·where I have chosen to be worshiped [L which is called by my name]? Do you think you can say, “We are safe!” when you do all these ·hateful things [abominations]? 11 This ·place [L house] ·where I have chosen to be worshiped [L that is called by my name] is nothing more to you than a ·hideout [den] for robbers [Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46]. I have been watching you, says the Lord.
12 “‘You people of Judah, go now to the town of Shiloh, where I ·first [formerly] made ·a place to be worshiped [L my name dwell]. See what I did to it because of the evil things the people of Israel had done. 13 You [C the people of Judah] have done all these evil things too, says the Lord. I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen to me. I called you, but you did not answer. 14 So I will destroy the ·place [L house] ·where I have chosen to be worshiped in Jerusalem [which is called by my name]. You ·trust [have confidence] in that place, which I gave to you and your ·ancestors [fathers], but I will destroy it just as I destroyed Shiloh [1 Sam. 4:1–22; Ps. 78:60–64]. 15 I will ·push you [throw you] away from me just as I ·pushed [threw] away your ·relatives [L brothers], the people of Israel [L all the seed of Ephraim; C the dominant tribe of the northern kingdom of Israel, exiled by the Assyrians in 722 bc]!’
16 “As for you [C Jeremiah], don’t pray for these people. Don’t cry out for them or ask anything for them or ·beg me to help them [intercede with me], because I will not listen to you. 17 Don’t you see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, and the fathers use the wood to make a fire. The women ·make [knead] the dough for cakes of bread, and they offer them to the Queen ·Goddess [L of Heaven; C probably Ishtar or Asherah, important goddesses of the surrounding cultures; 44:17–18]. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to make me angry. 19 But ·I am not the one [L is it I whom…?] the people of Judah are really hurting, says the Lord. ·They are [L Are they not…?] only hurting themselves and bringing ·shame [humiliation] upon themselves.
20 “‘So this is what the Lord God says: I will pour out my anger and wrath on this place, on people and animals, on the trees in the field and the ·crops in the [L fruit of the] ground. My anger will not be ·put out [extinguished; C like a fire].
Obedience Is More than Sacrifice
21 “‘This is what the Lord ·All-Powerful [Almighty; of Heaven’s Armies; T of hosts], the God of Israel, says: ·Offer [L Add your] burnt offerings [Lev. 1:1–17] along with your other sacrifices, and eat the ·meat [L flesh] yourselves [C it was forbidden to eat the meat of the burnt offering]! 22 When I brought your ·ancestors [fathers] out of Egypt, I did not speak to them and give them commands only about burnt offerings [Lev. 1:1–17] and sacrifices. 23 I also ·gave them this command [L commanded this word]: ·Obey me [L Listen to my voice], and I will be your God and you will be my people. ·Do all that I command [L Walk in my way/path] so that ·good things will happen to you [things might be well with you]. 24 But your ·ancestors [fathers] did not listen or ·pay attention [L bend their ear] to me. They were stubborn in their evil hearts and ·did whatever they wanted [L walked in their own counsels]. They went backward, not forward. 25 Since the day your ·ancestors [fathers] left Egypt until today, I have sent my servants, the prophets, again and again to you. 26 But your ·ancestors [fathers] did not listen or ·pay attention [L bend the ear] to me. ·They were very stubborn [L Their necks were stiff] and they did more evil than their ·ancestors [fathers].’
27 “You [C Jeremiah] will tell all these ·things [words] to them [C the people of Judah], but they will not listen to you. You will ·call [preach; proclaim] to them, but they will not answer you. 28 So say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not ·obeyed [L listened to the voice of] the Lord its God. These people do ·nothing when I correct them [L not accept the discipline/instruction]. ·They do not tell the truth [L The truth perishes]; it ·has disappeared from their lips [L is cut off from their mouths].
The Valley of Killing
29 “‘Cut off your hair [C the Hebrew phrase suggests a Nazirite vow and thus consecrated hair; Num. 6:5] and throw it away. Go up to the bare hilltop [3:2] and ·cry out [lament], because the Lord has rejected these people. He has turned his back on ·them, and in his anger will punish them [L the generation that enrages him]. 30 The ·people [descendants; sons] of Judah have done ·what I said was evil [L evil in my eyes], says the Lord. They have set up their ·hateful [loathsome; abominable] idols in the ·place where I have chosen to be worshiped [L house that is called by my name] and have made it ·unclean [defiled; C in a ritual sense]. 31 The people of Judah have built ·places of worship [L high places; C sites associated with pagan worship or inappropriate worship of God; Deut. 12] at Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom [2 Kin. 23:10–11]. There they burned their own sons and daughters as sacrifices, something I never commanded. It never even entered my ·mind [L heart; Lev. 18:21; Deut. 12:31; 18:10]. 32 So, I warn you. The days are coming, says the Lord, when people will not call this place Topheth [C “Spit”] or the Valley of Ben Hinnom anymore. They will call it the Valley of ·Killing [Slaughter]. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no room to bury anyone else [19:1–15]. 33 Then the ·bodies of the dead [corpses] will become food for the birds of the ·sky [heavens] and for the ·wild animals [L animals of the earth]. There will be no one ·left alive to chase [L to frighten] them away. 34 I will end the happy sounds of the bride and bridegroom. There will be no happy sounds in the cities of Judah or in the streets of Jerusalem, because the land will become an empty desert!
Jeremiah 7
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
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.
3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
4 Trust not in the lying words [of the false prophets who maintain that God will protect Jerusalem because His temple is there], saying, This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.
5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly and truly execute justice between every man and his neighbor,
6 If you do not oppress the transient and the alien, the fatherless, and the widow or shed innocent blood [by oppression and by judicial murders] in [Jerusalem] or go after other gods to your own hurt,
7 Then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers to dwell in forever.
8 Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot benefit [so that you do not profit].
9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known,
10 And [then dare to] come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My [a]Name, and say, [By the discharge of this religious formality] we are set free!—only to go on with this wickedness and these abominations?
11 Has this house, which is called by My Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes [a place of retreat for you between acts of violence]? Behold, I Myself have seen it, says the Lord.
12 But go now to My place which was in Shiloh [in Ephraim], where I set My Name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel.(A)
13 And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, and [because] when I spoke to you persistently [even rising up early and speaking], you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer,
14 Therefore will I do to this house (the temple), which is called by My Name and in which you trust, to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.
15 And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole posterity of Ephraim.
16 Therefore do not pray for this people [of Judah] or lift up a cry or entreaty for them or make intercession to Me, for I will not listen to or hear you.
17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
18 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes for the [b]queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger!
19 Am I the One Whom they provoke to anger? says the Lord. Is it not themselves [whom they provoke], to their own confusion and vexation and to their own shame?
20 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.
21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the flesh [if you will. It will avail you nothing].
22 For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.
23 But this thing I did command them: Listen to and obey My voice, and I will be your God and you will be My people; and walk in the whole way that I command you, that it may be well with you.
24 But they would not listen to and obey Me or bend their ear [to Me], but followed the counsels and the stubborn promptings of their own evil hearts and minds, and they turned their backs and went in reverse instead of forward.
25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent to you all My servants the prophets, sending them daily, early and late.
26 Yet the people would not listen to and obey Me or bend their ears [to Me], but stiffened their necks and behaved worse than their fathers.
27 Speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to and obey you; also call to them, but they will not answer you.
28 Yet you shall say to them, This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God or receive instruction and correction and warning; truth and faithfulness have perished and have completely vanished from their mouths.
29 Cut off your hair [your crown, O Jerusalem] and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights, for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.
30 For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight, says the Lord; they have set their abominations (extremely disgusting and shamefully vile things) in the house which is called by My Name to defile it.
31 And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom [son of Hinnom], to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire [in honor of Molech, the fire god]—which I did not command, nor did it come into My mind or heart.(B)
32 Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it shall no more be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom [son of Hinnom], but the Valley of Slaughter, for [in bloody warfare] they will bury in Topheth till there is no more room and no place else to bury.(C)
33 And the dead bodies of this people will be meat for the fowls of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away.
34 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 will become a waste.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 7:10 See footnote on Deut. 12:5.
- Jeremiah 7:18 A goddess of fertility, probably the Babylonian title for Ishtar. She is identified with the planet Venus. Offerings to this goddess included cakes made in the shape of a star (Jer. 44:19).
The Expanded Bible, Copyright © 2011 Thomas Nelson Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
