The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 7 Promises and threats spoken at the temple gate

 The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 7

Promises and threats spoken at the temple gate

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:

2 Stand at the gate of the house of the Lord, and proclaim there this word, and say: Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah, who enter through these gates to worship the Lord.

3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and I will let you dwell in this place.

4 Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!”

5 But if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice between a man and his neighbor,

6 If you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place, nor follow other gods to your own harm,

7 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 deceptive words that are of no profit.

9 You will steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known,

10 Then you will come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, “We are free; we may do all these abominations?”

11 Is this house, which is called by my name, a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen this, declares the Lord.

12 But go now to my place that was in Zion, where I first caused my name to dwell, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.

13 Now therefore, because you do all these things, declares the Lord, I spoke to you, rising early and speaking, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer,

14 I will do also to this house, which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to this place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

15 And I will cast you out of my presence, as I cast out all your brothers, the whole generation of Ephraim.

16 Therefore, do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor intercede with me, for I will not listen to you.

17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

18 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.

19 Is it I whom they are provoking to anger, declares the Lord, and not themselves, to the shame of their faces?

20 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, and on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.

21 Thus says the Lord 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 on the day that I brought you out of the land of Egypt, nor did I command them anything concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.

23 But this I commanded them, saying, “Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.”

24 But they did not listen or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil hearts; and they went backward and not forward.

25 From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, sending them daily and early.

26 But they did not listen to me or incline their ears; instead, they stiffened their necks and did worse than their ancestors.

27 Therefore, you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; you shall call to them, but they will not answer you.

28 And you shall say to them: “This is a people who do not listen to the voice of the Lord their God and do not accept correction; truth has perished and has been torn from their mouths.”

29 Cut off the hair of your head and throw it away, and raise your lamentation on high; for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

30 For the children of Judah have done what is evil in my eyes, declares the Lord: they have set their abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it.

31 And they 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 never commanded, nor did it enter my heart.

32 Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no longer be called Topheth, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter; and they will bury in Topheth, because there will be no more room.

33 And the corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth; and no one will frighten them away.

34 And I will cause the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem; for the land will become desolate.