Jeremiah 7
Contemporary English Version
Jeremiah Speaks in the Temple
(Jeremiah 26.1-6)
7 1-3 The Lord told me to stand by the gate of the temple[a] 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.[b] 4 Don't fool yourselves! My temple is here in Jerusalem, but that doesn't mean I will protect you. 5 I will keep you safe only if you change your ways and are fair and honest with each other. 6 Stop taking advantage of foreigners, orphans, and widows. Don't kill innocent people. And stop worshiping other gods. 7 Then I will let you enjoy a long life in this land I gave your ancestors.
8 But just look at what is happening! You put your trust in worthless lies. 9 You 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. 10 And then you come into my temple and worship me! Do you think I will protect you so that you can go on sinning? 11 (A) You are thieves, and you have made my temple your hideout. But I've seen everything you have done.
12 (B) 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!
13 While you have been sinning, I have been trying to talk to you, but you refuse to listen. 14 Don'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. 15 And 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
16 Jeremiah, don't pray for these people! I, the Lord, would refuse to listen. 17 Do you see what the people of Judah are doing in their towns and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 (C) Children gather firewood, their fathers build fires, and their mothers mix dough to bake bread for the goddess they call the Queen of Heaven.[c] They even offer wine sacrifices to other gods, just to insult me. 19 But they are not only insulting me; they are also harming themselves by doing these shameful things.
20 And 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
21 The 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.
22 At the time I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I didn't command them to offer sacrifices to me. 23 Instead, 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.” 24 But your ancestors refused to listen. They were stubborn, and whenever I wanted them to go one way, they always went the other. 25 Ever since your ancestors left Egypt, I have been sending my servants the prophets to speak for me. 26 But you have ignored me and become even more stubborn and sinful than your ancestors ever were!
Slaughter Valley
The Lord said:
27 Jeremiah, no matter what you do, the people won't listen. 28 So 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.
29 Shave 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.
30 You have disobeyed me by putting your disgusting idols in my temple, and now the temple itself is disgusting to me. 31 (D) 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. 32 So 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, 33 and 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 (E) 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.
Jeremiah 7
New American Standard Bible
Message at the Temple Gate
7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 “(A)Stand at 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 by these gates to worship the Lord!’” 3 This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “(B)Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you live in this place. 4 (C)Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘[a]This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ 5 For (D)if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly (E)practice justice between a person and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress the stranger, the [b](F)orphan, or the widow, and do not shed (G)innocent blood in this place, nor (H)follow other gods to your own ruin, 7 then I will let you (I)live in this place, in the (J)land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.
8 “Behold, you are trusting in (K)deceptive words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, [c](L)offer sacrifices to Baal, and follow (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 saved!’—so that you may do all these abominations? 11 Has (P)this house, which is called by My name, become a (Q)den of robbers in your sight? Behold, (R)I Myself have seen it,” declares the Lord.
12 “But go now to My place which was in (S)Shiloh, where I (T)made My name dwell at the beginning, and (U)see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things,” declares the Lord, “and I spoke to you, (V)speaking again and again, but you did not listen, and I (W)called you but you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the (X)house which is called by My name, (Y)in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, just as I (Z)did to Shiloh. 15 I will (AA)hurl you out of My sight, just as I have hurled out all your brothers, all the [d]descendants of (AB)Ephraim.
16 “As for you, (AC)do not pray for this people, and do not lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not plead with Me; for I am not listening to you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The [e]children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven; and they (AD)pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to (AE)provoke Me to anger. 19 (AF)Are they provoking Me?” declares the Lord. “Is it not themselves instead, to their [f]own (AG)shame?” 20 Therefore this is what the Lord [g]God says: “Behold, My (AH)anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on human and animal life, and on the (AI)trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched.”
21 This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “Add your (AJ)burnt offerings to your sacrifices and (AK)eat flesh. 22 For I did not (AL)speak to your fathers, or command them on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 But this is [h]what I commanded them, saying, ‘(AM)Obey My voice, and (AN)I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you shall walk [i]entirely in the way which I command you, so that it may (AO)go well for you.’ 24 Yet they (AP)did not obey or incline their ear, but walked by their own advice and in the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and they [j](AQ)went backward and not forward. 25 Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have (AR)sent you all My servants the prophets, sending them daily, again and again. 26 Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but (AS)stiffened their neck; they (AT)did more evil than their fathers.
27 “So you shall (AU)speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will (AV)not answer you. 28 And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that (AW)did not obey the voice of the Lord their God or accept discipline; [k](AX)trustworthiness has perished and has been eliminated from their mouth.
29 (AY)Cut off [l]your hair and throw it away,
And (AZ)take up a song of mourning on the bare heights;
For the Lord has (BA)rejected and forsaken
The generation of His wrath.’
30 For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight,” declares the Lord. “They have (BB)put their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. 31 They have (BC)built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, to (BD)burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I (BE)did not command, and it did not come into My [m]mind.
32 “(BF)Therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of the Slaughter; for they will (BG)bury in Topheth [n]because there is no other place. 33 The (BH)dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth; and no one will frighten them away. 34 Then I will (BI)eliminate from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride; for the (BJ)land will become a site of ruins.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 7:4 Lit They are
- Jeremiah 7:6 Or fatherless
- Jeremiah 7:9 Or burn incense
- Jeremiah 7:15 Lit seed
- Jeremiah 7:18 Lit sons
- Jeremiah 7:19 Lit their faces’
- Jeremiah 7:20 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
- Jeremiah 7:23 Lit the word
- Jeremiah 7:23 Lit in all the way
- Jeremiah 7:24 Lit were
- Jeremiah 7:28 Or faithfulness
- Jeremiah 7:29 Lit your crown
- Jeremiah 7:31 Lit heart
- Jeremiah 7:32 Or until there is no place left
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