ULT JER Chapter 7

◄ JER 7 ► ║ ═ ©

7 The word that was to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, 2 “Stand at the gate of the house of Yahweh and proclaim there this word! And you shall say,

‘Hear the word of Yahweh, all of Judah, who enter these gates to bow down to Yahweh. 3 Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: Make your ways and your deeds good, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust for yourself in words of deceit, saying, “The temple of Yahweh! The temple of Yahweh! The temple of Yahweh is this!” 5 For if making good you make good your ways and your deeds, if doing you do justice between a man and between his neighbor—6 if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless one, or the widow and you do not shed innocent blood in this place, and do not walk after other gods to your harm—7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers from ancient times and to eternity. 8 Behold! You trust for yourself in words of deceit to no benefit.

9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear deceitfully and burn incense to Baal and walk after other gods whom you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before my face in this house which is called by my name and say, “We are delivered,” in order to do all of these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a cave of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have also seen—the declaration of Yahweh.

12 But go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at in the beginning, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 So now, on account of your doing all of these deeds”—the declaration of Yahweh—“and because I spoke to you rising early and speaking, but you did not listen, and I called you, but you did not answer, 14 therefore I shall do to the house that is called by my name, which you are trusting in, and to the place that I gave to you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 And I shall cast you out from my face just as I have cast out all your brothers, all the seed of Ephraim.’

16 As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up a cry or a prayer for them, and do not plead with me, for I shall not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The sons are collecting wood and the fathers kindling the fire, and the women are kneading dough to make cakes for the Queen of the Heavens, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to provoke me to anger. 19 Are they provoking me to anger?”—the declaration of Yahweh—“is it not themselves, to the shame of their own faces?

20 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, my nose and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast, and on the tree of the field and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and will not be quenched.’

21 Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. 22 For I did not speak to your fathers nor did I command them on the day I brought them out from the land of Egypt concerning matters of burnt offering and sacrifice. 23 But I commanded them this word, saying, “Listen to my voice, and I will be your God and you will be my people; and you shall walk in all the ways that I command you so that it may go well for you.” 24 But they did not listen and they did not incline their ear. And they walked by schemes in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and they went to the back and not to the face. 25 From the day that your fathers went out from the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent all of my servants, the prophets, to you; each day rising early and sending. 26 And yet they did not listen to me, and they did not incline their ear, but they stiffened their neck. They did evil more than their fathers.’

27 So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. And you shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 And you shall say to them: This is the nation that does not listen to the voice of Yahweh its God and does not receive discipline. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.

29 Shear your consecration hair and throw it away. And lift up on the bare heights a lamentation. For Yahweh has rejected and abandoned the generation of his fury. 30 For the sons of Judah have done evil in my eyes”—the declaration of Yahweh—“they have set their detestable things in the house over which my name is called, to defile it. 31 And 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, and it did not come into my heart. 32 Therefore behold, days are coming”—the declaration of Yahweh—“and it will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, instead, the Valley of Slaughter. And they will bury in Topheth because there is no room. 33 And the corpses of this people will be for food for the bird of the skies and for the beast of the earth, and there will be none to frighten them. 34 And I shall cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem: the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. For the land will be desolate.”