JeremiahChapter 7

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¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ²"Stand at the gate of the LORD's house and announce this message there: 'Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. ³This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Change your ways and your actions. Then I will let you live in this place. ⁴Do not trust in lies that say, "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!" ⁵For if you really change your ways and your actions, and if you treat one another fairly, ⁶if you stop being cruel to the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and if you stop killing innocent people in this place or following other gods to your own harm, ⁷then I will let you live in this place. It is the land I gave to your fathers forever and ever. ⁸But look, you keep trusting in lies that do you no good. ⁹Will you steal and murder? Will you commit adultery and lie under oath? Will you burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have never known, ¹⁰and then come and stand in front of me in this house that is called by my Name? Will you say, "We are safe," so you can keep doing all these disgusting things? ¹¹This house is called by my Name. Has it become a hideout for robbers in your eyes? I have seen it too, declares the LORD. ¹²Go now to my place in Shiloh. That is where I first made a home for my Name. See what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. ¹³You have done all these things, declares the LORD. I spoke to you again and again, but you would not listen. I called to you, but you would not answer. ¹⁴So what I did to Shiloh, I will now do to this house that is called by my Name. It is the house you trust in. It is the place I gave to you and your fathers. ¹⁵I will throw you out of my sight, just as I threw out all your relatives, all the people of Ephraim.' ¹⁶As for you, Jeremiah, do not pray for these people. Do not cry out or ask for anything for them. Do not beg me, for I will not listen to you. ¹⁷Don't you see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸The children gather wood. The fathers light the fire. The women knead dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to make me angry. ¹⁹But am I the one they are making angry? declares the LORD. Aren't they really hurting themselves, to their own shame? ²⁰So this is what the Lord GOD says: Look, my anger and my fury will be poured out on this place. It will fall on people and animals, on the trees of the field and the crops of the land. It will burn, and no one will put it out. ²¹This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves! ²²When I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices. ²³This is what I commanded them: Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. You must walk in all the ways I command you, so that things will go well for you. ²⁴But they did not listen or pay attention. They followed the stubborn desires of their own evil hearts. They went backward instead of forward. ²⁵From the day your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until today, I have sent you all my servants the prophets. I sent them again and again. ²⁶But they would not listen to me or pay attention. They were stubborn and did more evil than their fathers. ²⁷When you tell them all these things, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer. ²⁸So you must say to them, 'This is the nation that would not listen to the voice of the LORD their God. They would not accept correction. Truth has died. It has disappeared from their lips. ²⁹Cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a sad song on the bare hilltops. For the LORD has rejected and forsaken this generation that is under his anger.' ³⁰The people of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the LORD. They have set up their disgusting idols in the house that is called by my Name. They have made it unclean. ³¹They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom. There they burn their sons and daughters in the fire. I never commanded that. It never even entered my mind. ³²So look, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom. It will be called the Valley of Slaughter. For they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. ³³The dead bodies of these people will become food for the birds of the sky and the wild animals. No one will be there to scare them away. ³⁴In the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, I will stop the sounds of joy and gladness. I will stop the voices of the bride and groom. For the land will become a wasteland."