Jeremiah 7

Revised Geneva Translation

7 The Words that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

² “Stand in the gate of the LORD’s House, and cry this Word there, and say, ‘Hear the Word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates, to worship the LORD!”

³ Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your works, and I will let you dwell in this place.

⁴ “Do not trust in lying words, saying, ‘The Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, this is the Temple of the LORD.’

⁵ “For if you amend and redress your ways and your works, if you execute judgment between a man and neighbor,

⁶ “and do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place or walk after other gods, to your destruction,

⁷ “then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever and ever.

⁸ “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit.

⁹ “Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know,

¹⁰ “and come and stand before Me in this House, whereupon My Name is called, and say, ‘We are delivered, even though we have done all these abominations’?

¹¹ “Has this House become a den of thieves, whereupon My Name is called before your eyes? Behold, even I see it,” says the LORD.

¹² “But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My Name at the beginning. And behold what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.

¹³ “Therefore, now, because you have done all these works,” says the LORD, “I rose up early and spoke to you. But when I spoke, you would not hear Me, nor would you answer when I called.

¹⁴ “Therefore I will do to this House upon which My Name is called — in which you also trust, the place that I gave to you and to your fathers — as I have done to Shiloh.

¹⁵ “And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim.

¹⁶ “Therefore, you shall neither pray for this people nor lift up cry or prayer for them nor entreat Me. For I will not hear you.

¹⁷ “Do you not 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 for the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, so that they may provoke Me to anger.

¹⁹ “Do they provoke Me to anger,” says the LORD, “and not themselves to the shame of their own faces?”

²⁰ Therefore, thus says the LORD God: “Behold, MY anger and My wrath shall be poured upon this place, upon man and upon beast, and upon the tree of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground. And it shall burn and not be quenched.”

²¹ Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “Put your Burnt Offerings with your Sacrifices and eat the flesh.

²² “For I did not speak to your fathers, or Command them, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices.

²³ “But this thing I Commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My Voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways which I have Commanded you, so that it may be well with you.’

²⁴ “But they would not obey, nor incline their ear, but went after the counsels and the stubbornness of their wicked heart and went backward and not forward.

²⁵ “Since the day that your fathers came up out of the land of Egypt, to this day, I have even sent to you all My servants, the Prophets, rising up early every day and sending them.

²⁶ “Yet they would not hear Me, nor incline their ear, but hardened their neck and did worse than their fathers.

²⁷ “Therefore, you shall speak all these Words to them. But they will not hear you. You shall also cry to them, but they will not answer you.

²⁸ “But you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not hear the Voice of the LORD their God or receive discipline. Truth has perished and has been cut out of their mouth.

²⁹ ‘Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away. And take up a complaint on the high places. For the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’

³⁰ “For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the LORD. “They have set their abominations in the House upon which My Name is called, to pollute it.

³¹ “And they have built the high place of Tophet, which is in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not Command them. Nor did it come into My Heart.

³² “Therefore, behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that it shall not be called Tophet anymore, nor the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they shall bury in Tophet until there is no place.

³³ “And the carcasses of this people shall be food for the birds of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. And no one shall 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 shall be desolate.”