Chapter 7
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD , saying ,
2 " Stand in the gate of the LORD ’s house , and proclaim this word there , and say , ‘ Hear the LORD ’s word , all you of Judah , who enter in at these gates to worship the LORD .’"
3 The LORD of Armies , the God of Israel says , " Amend your ways and your doings , and I will cause you to dwell in this place .
4 Don’t trust in lying words , saying , ‘ The LORD ’s temple , the LORD ’s temple , the LORD ’s temple , are these .’
5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings , if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbour ;
6 if you don’t oppress the foreigner , the fatherless , and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place , and don’t walk after other gods to your own hurt ,
7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place , in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forever more .
8 Behold , you trust in lying words that can’t profit .
9 Will you steal , murder , commit adultery , swear falsely , burn incense to Baal , and walk after other gods that you have not known ,
10 then come and stand before me in this house , which is called by my name , and say, ‘ We are delivered ,’ that you may do all these abominations ?
11 Has this house , which is called by my name , become a den of robbers in your eyes ? Behold , I myself have seen it ," says the LORD .
12 " But 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 for the wickedness of my people Israel .
13 Now , because you have done all these works ," says the LORD , " and I spoke to you , rising up early and speaking , but you didn’t hear ; and I called you , but you didn’t answer ;
14 therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name , in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh .
15 I will cast you out of my sight , as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole offspring of Ephraim.
16 " Therefore don’t pray for this people . Don’t lift up a cry or prayer for them or make intercession to me ; for I will not hear you .
17 Don’t you see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem ?
18 The children gather wood , and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough , to make cakes to the queen of the sky , and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger .
19 Do they provoke me to anger ?" says the LORD . "Don’t they provoke themselves , to the confusion of their own faces ?"
20 Therefore the Lord GOD says : " Behold , my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place , on man , on animal, on the trees of the field , and on the fruit of the ground ; and it will burn and will not be quenched ."
21 The LORD of Armies , the God of Israel says : " Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat .
22 For I didn’t speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices ;
23 but this thing I commanded them , saying , ‘ Listen to my voice , and I will be your God , and you shall be my people . Walk in all the way that I command you , that it may be well with you .’
24 But they didn’t listen or turn their ear , but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart , and went backward, and not forward .
25 Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day , I have sent to you all my servants the prophets , daily rising up early and sending them .
26 Yet they didn’t listen to me or incline their ear , but made their neck stiff . They did worse than their fathers.
27 " You shall speak all these words to them , but they will not listen to you . You shall also call to them , but they will not answer you .
28 You shall tell them , ‘ This is the nation that has not listened to the LORD their God ’s voice , nor received instruction . Truth has perished, and is cut off from their mouth .’
29 Cut off your hair , and throw it away , and take up a lamentation on the bare heights ; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath .
30 " For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight ," says the LORD . " They have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name , to defile it .
31 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 didn’t command , nor did it come into my mind .
32 Therefore behold , the days come ", says the LORD , " that it will no more be called ‘ Topheth ’ or ‘ The valley of the son of Hinnom ’, but ‘ The valley of Slaughter ’; for they will bury in Topheth until there is no place to bury .
33 The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky , and for the animals of the earth . No one will frighten them away .
34 Then I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness , the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride ; for the land will become a waste ."