Message at the Temple Gate

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 by these gates to worship the Lord.’” ³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Change your ways and your behavior, and I will let you live in this place. ⁴ Do not trust in the deceptive and lying words [of the false prophets who claim that Jerusalem will be protected by God because of the temple], saying, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ ⁵ For if you thoroughly change your ways and your behavior, if you thoroughly and honestly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, ⁶ if you do not oppress the transient and the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood [by oppression and by unjust judicial murders] in Jerusalem, nor follow after other gods to your own ruin, ⁷ then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers [to live in] forever and ever.

⁸ “Behold, you are trusting in deceptive and useless words that bring no benefit. ⁹ Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear [oaths] falsely, offer sacrifices or burn incense to Baal, and follow 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, ‘We are protected and set free [by this act of religious ritual]!’—only to go on with this wickedness and these disgusting and loathsome things? 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.