Old Testament · Jeremiah

Jeremiah 7

Jeremiah’s Message at the Temple Gate

1The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: 2Stand in the gate of the house of the LORD, and proclaim there this word, and say: Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah, who enter in these gates to worship the LORD. 3Thus says the LORD of hosts^a, the God of Israel: Make good your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4Do not trust, for yourselves, in lying words, saying: The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.

5For if you thoroughly make good your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly do judgment^b between a man^c and his neighbor, 6the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow you do not oppress, and innocent blood you do not shed in this place, and after other gods you do not walk, to your hurt, 7then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from everlasting and to everlasting.

8Behold, you are trusting, for yourselves, in lying words, that cannot profit. 9Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear to falsehood, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you have not known, 10and come and stand before Me in this house, upon which My name is called, and say: We are delivered—in order to do all these abominations? 11Has this house, upon which My name is called, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I also, I have seen it, declares the LORD.

12For go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I caused My name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. 13And now, because you have done all these works, declares the LORD, and I spoke to you, rising early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer, 14therefore I will do to the house upon which My name is called, in which you are trusting, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15And I will cast you out from before My face, as I cast out all your brothers, all the seed of Ephraim.

Judah’s Idolatry Persists

16And you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up for them cry or prayer, and do not intercede with Me; for I am not hearing you. 17Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18The sons gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, in order to provoke Me. 19Is it Me they are provoking? declares the LORD. Is it not themselves, to the shame of their faces?

20Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, My anger and My fury are poured out upon this place, upon man^d and upon beast, and upon the tree of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground^e; and it shall burn and shall not be quenched.

21Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat flesh^f. 22For I did not speak with your fathers, nor command^g them, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning matters of burnt offering and sacrifice. 23But this thing I commanded them, saying: Hear My voice, and I will be to you for God, and you shall be to Me for a people; and walk in all the way that I command you, in order that it may be well with you.

24But they did not hear, and they did not incline their ear, but walked in the counsels, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. 25From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily, rising early and sending; 26but they did not hear Me, and they did not incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did worse than their fathers.

27And you shall speak to them all these words, but they will not hear you; and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28And you shall say to them: This is the nation that did not hear the voice of the LORD its God, nor received correction; faithfulness has perished and is cut off from their mouth. 29Cut off your consecrated hair and cast it away, and lift up a lamentation on the bare heights; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.

The Valley of Slaughter

30For the sons of Judah have done the evil in My eyes, declares the LORD; they have set their detestable things in the house upon which My name is called, to defile it. 31And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come up upon My heart.

32Therefore behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no more be called Topheth, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter; for they shall bury in Topheth, for lack of room. 33And the carcass of this people shall be food for the bird of the heavens and for the beast of the earth; and none shall frighten them away.

34And I will make to shabbat, from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.