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 Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Correct your ways and your deeds,^(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 change your ways and your actions, if you act justly toward one another,^{[a](C) 6} if you no longer oppress the foreigner, 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) called by My name and say, ‘We are delivered, so we can continue doing all these detestable acts’? ¹¹ Has this house, which is called by 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 is called by My name^(M)—the house in which you trust—the place that I gave you and your ancestors. ¹⁵ I will drive you from My presence, just as I drove out 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 man and beast, 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 Hosts, 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. You must 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 according to 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 this day, I have sent all My servants the prophets^(AA) to you time and time again.^{[d](AB) 26} However, they wouldn’t listen to Me or pay attention but became obstinate;^[e](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 You 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^[f] has perished—it has disappeared from their mouths. ²⁹ Cut off the hair of your sacred vow^[g](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 detestable things^(AH) in the house that is called by My name and defiled it.^{(AI) 31} They have built the high places of Topheth^[h](AJ) in the Valley of Hinnom^[i](AK) in order to burn their sons and daughters in the fire,^(AL) a thing I did not command; I never entertained the thought.^[j]

³² “Therefore, take note! Days are coming”^(AM)—the Lord’s declaration—“when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.^(AN) Topheth will become a cemetery,^[k] 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)